A long weekend in a retreat (60-something kms from Bellingen). Multiple huts in a rural landscape.
On arrival multiple
fossil fuel powered machinery made the landscape '
tidy'. The disturbing and excessive noise and dust pollution hogged the attention.
On opening the door to the premises, one was hit by an intense cloud of
synthetic fragrances that was cooking on a power point. All textiles were drenched in these potentially hazardous synthetic
chemicals. Curtains and
furniture seemed to be dipped in
fire foam and
flame retardants. The bedsheets smelled perfumed. The kitchen cupboard had, as in most Aussie kitchens, the well-used spray can of
pesticide handy. The water, without a filter, tasted
foul and metallic.
The closeness of the neighbouring huts tried to emulate a feeling of a tight-knit sub-urbia back home. Families wanting a "getting away from it all" feeling ended up in the confinement of 'family cabins'. "Loudness-as-an-inalienable-right “
(Wallace, David Foster) of families one might add. Large unplanned families with the full package of pets and all the baggage. Parents intensely interacting with their wearables. Many mouths scream. The child that cannot use language cries and screams.
The dads of instant culture pour petrol, meths or other
accelerants on the
meat altar. The incinerated
meat stands in the form of cows not far off. They are usually pre-cooked in the
shelter-less Australian sun.
The toy pets bark and squeal from the abuse of being mistaken for a horse. Agitated the free range dog chases the only Australian native fauna in sight, a brush turkey. For short minutes distraction culture goes sensation seeking and then they sprawl and sprawl.
The use of the veranda is impossible and the hut smells toxic. The entire night the resident rooster claims his territory over the visiting
Koel and the array of family dogs bark and yap and
yap and yap.
Next idyllic morning the neighbouring fence is being drenched with toxins trailing in a large
dust drift. The posts are meters away from the line of huts. Copious amounts of herbicide/pesticide is being doused, the
diesel of the tractor fills the 'shelter' up with thick clouds of diesel fumes.
We retreat to a coastal eatery. A deafening aural ambiance from families being fed. In the
food preparation area a white, plastic
auto mist box disperses
pesticides totally unmanned round-the-clock! At short intervals poison is being released on to 'bugs', staff and customers. Enthusiasts of old car wrecks generously share the fumes of their old timers which fill the entire cafe.
People just seem to tolerate the ubiquity of pesticides and noise pollution
We disappeared through the sanitised,
chemicalised agricultural acres which stretch for mile upon mile. Australian flora and fauna has been eradicated or only
fragments are left as retreats.
Images:
Cicada, domesticated silkmoth, Bombyx mori and a diversity of flies,
Alfred Brehm,
Brehm's Life of Animals
Even ‘environmentally protective’ levels of pesticide devastate insect biodiversity.
Common insecticide used in homes associated with delayed mental development of young children
Update
Pyrethroid insecticides exposure increasing in homes and people, 07022014
