A MIDLANDS VIEW

The LANDliteracy Network is seeking images of Tasmania's Midlands. The Network is exploring the idea of 'cultural landscapes' [another link] and Tasmania's Midlands is example of the ways cultural dynamics have shaped and are continuing to reshape a landscape. Thank you Mal for your images!

Click on the image to enlarge
LINK:Click here to see more of Mal's Midland's landscapes
The addresses that people need to send their images to are:

eMail Address
theredtree@7250.net

Postal Addresss
THE RED TREE NETWORK
Woodbury House
7849 Midland Hwy

Woodbury TAS 7120

Only COPIES should be sent as the Network does not have a budget for return postage. It doesn’t matter what form the copy is in – digital, print, photocopy, whatever. In addition to the image the Network would appreciate anything that people can remember about the day they took their photograph and any other observations they may have made. And of course we need people's names and their permission to publish their image on this site.

THE MIDLANDS: A Cultural Landscape

Tasmania's Midlands once were famous for the production of fine wool. That too was the case for Woodbury Farm the site of TREEreadRED. Sheep grazing in particular has dramatically changed the Midlands landscape and 200 years of European settlement in Tasmania has produced a cultural landscape that barely resembles the landscape managed by Tasmania's Aboriginal people.

The REDreadTREE came about as a result of a confluence of ideas. The Landcare organisation was seeking a means to draw attention to 'Rural Tree Decline' in the Midlands. Coinciding with this a group of artists were looking for opportunities to install 'ecoLANDMARKS' along the Midlands Highway. The REDreadTREE was to be the precursor for that and simultaneously serve a Landcare purpose.

The timing was the 5th year of the 'Decade of Landcare' and the REDreadTREE project had been proceeded (and followed) by significant tree plantings primarily designed to abate Rural Tree Decline. There was an enormous community effort to replace trees in the midlands landscape.

Sadly, almost a decade on from the end of the Decade of Landcare anicdotal evidence in the Midlands suggests that much less that 5% of those plantings survived. On top of that, during the Decade of Landcare in the Midlands it was estimated that there was an enormous loss of tree cove – there are suggestions of 25%. This is born out by the Midlands GOOGLEearth images here.

The Midlands is without doubt a cultural landscape that is not too difficult to interpret. As a consiquence of land use practices and sucessive droughts the proposition that the landscape is desertifying is plausible on the visual evidence.

LAYERED OWNERSHIPS & INTERESTS

Thinking about the community of owners and interested people represented in this site and Tasmania's Midlands landscape is an interesting proposition. The boundary fence above is as poignant a 'symbol' as the word 'tree.' The electrification signage is equally so. There is as much to be 'read' in the fence as there may be in the word.

And then there is the individual, corporate, organisational and institutional 'branding and badging' announcing a range of interests – and ownerships and thus rights of various kinds. In amongst that there is 'government' at all levels declaring its interests. None of this is all that subtle. Nonetheless there are subliminal 'soul mates' matching those announced – bankers and financiers being among them.

At a more subtle level there is something to be read in the species selection in this experimental 'planting'. Environment managers, land managers, foresters of various kinds, researchers of various kinds, names just some who have something 'invested' in the selection'. In the Tasmanian Midlands especially a range of tensions can be found in their various interests.

In amongst the ecucalypts there are two odd trees out that were left over from – survived rather – from the year 2000 planting – and left in 2002 when almost all the other trees were planted. They symbolise another group of people with something invested in this site and landscape. After that there are others who use the site as various kinds of landmarks and who have a myriad of stories to tell linked to the site. It is impossible to rank their various 'interests and ownerships' or even know them all. But with these interests come rights and obligations. Some are more onerous than others but all are assessed more subjectively than objectively. Indeed, some individuals may have conflicting benefits and duties symbolised in this site.

In the end the REDreadTREE and TREEreadRED sit in a post-colonial cultural landscape. There are cultural tensions in all this.

Californians Shoot TREEreadRED

Click here to go to source

TREEreadRED: Site 2000 After The Olympic Landcare Planting

1990-2000 Decade of Landcare:"Tasmanian landcarers paint a dead tree sited on the highway between Hobart and Launceston red, to highlight the issue of tree decline [1996]. The image captures the imagination of many people and becomes the inspiration of the red tree campaign of 1997 and the gold tree campaign associated with Olympic Landcare in 1998-2000. LINK "

To mark the end of the "Decade of Landcare" and associated with the "Olympic Landcare Gold Tree Campaign" TREEreadRED was moved from its original site where the REDreadTREE stood. In 2000 it was moved to the forfront of a fenced off site where several hundred trees and understory plants were planted.

TREEreadRED had won the unwelcomed attention of some the 'Midlands Wags' who had taken to visiting the site late at night in their 4x4s and climbing "the tree" off the bonnet. On leaving they occasionally nudged a letter or two. – OH BUGGER! – remember that Toyota advertisement. So, TREEreadRED started to look a bit disheveled from time to time.

The long and short of it was that the new landowner couldn't take the risk of someone being hurt and suing him – even if they were there and up to no good. So TREEreadRED was moved and the rest is now history. Sadly the planting at that time failed and only 2 trees have survived.

Interestingly 'The Understory Network' supplied plants and planters for this planting in cooperation with Landcare and other community members. And, just as interestingly there is currently a paucity of understory plants on the site today.

More on the TREEreadRED Planting: HERE

MAPPING TREE DECLINE IN TASMANIA

Somewhat ironically the mapping of 'land alienation' in Tasmania since European settlement simultaneously maps the decline in Tasmania's tree cover. There is no surprises there and since this particular set of maps were produced in 1945 the issue has grown.

So called 'Rural Tree Decline' (RTD) is but a part of the problem. The REDreadTREE Project was primarily to do with drawing attention to RTD and hopefully also draw attention to the need to do some research into the factors impacting upon trees in Tasmania's Midlands.

The issues are at once complex and simple. RTD is somewhat like the canary down the coal mine. It is telling us something! Since the REDreadTREE was painted in 1996 the problem has increased rather than being abated by massive Landcare tree planting projects.

Yes, there have been some success stories, and some research, and successive droughts too but more than anything else, land use practices continue to exacerbate the problem.

The question still remains. And then there is "Climate Change". Where to from here?

TREEreadRED: Book Reference

Photo & Book Peter Solness – LINK

In 1996 John Burbury owned Woodbury House adjoining the RED TREE Site and John was an important contributor to the project – especially when the local Council said they had doubts about the proposal. When in September that year someone burnt the REDreadTREE down, well it looked like its message had been destroyed for John and as he said "just for the sake of someone getting full at the pub and saying 'lets go and burn the bastard down".

So as he said "I got wild and wrote a poem". It was called 'The Red Trees' Lament' and in part it says:

"When man stands up for an ideal
To improve his lot and others
He sends forth little rays of hope
to shine down on his brothers.


This ray then soon becomes a light
That grows into a beam
A beacon for the hopes of man
Not just another dream."

John was a regular contributor the ABC's morning Talk Back Radio and almost always with a poem relevant to the day and something got him going. Sadly John passed away in 1998.

THE REDreadTREE and The Green Campaign

Click on the heading for more information about the bookClick on an image to enlarge

Helen Gee's "For The Forests" was published in 2001 and documented th REDreadTREE & TREEreadRED in a 'Green Context.' The book also documents The Greens using an image of REDreadTREE on the cover of their magazine "The Daily Planet" July-August 1996.

TREEreadRED: Snapped @ 110 K

Photo: Ray Arnold 1998

Since May 1996 people have driven drive by the REDreadTREE and later the TREEreadRED site and taken photographs. They have imagined it in all kinds of ways and it would be good to receive copies of the images people have made over the years. Various artists have done painting as well and some have turned up as entries in various competitions.

TREEreadRED: Fire Event

On the evening before TREEreadRED was launched by Landcare's James Hardy there was a Fire Event facilitated by the Tunbridge/Woodbury community. Since the TREEreadRED was burnt it seemed appropriate to baptise the word that replaced the tree with FIRE. It was a quite event and noticed by just a few passers by on the Midlands Highway.

Acknowledgements: Ray Norman – Initiating Artist, Jack Jaffray – Chainsaw Carving, John Burbury – Landholder & Bush Poet, Tunbridge Fire Brigade – The Fire, Simon Cuthbert – Photography, David Hansen – Cultural Theory, The Midlands Community – Site Works, Tractor Hire, Moral Support & BEER

THE DAY THE RED TREE BURNT

Sometime in August the REDreadTREE was graffitied with faux Aboriginal type marks. Was this a poor attempt to blame shift? Then in the early hours of 18th September 1996 the REDreadTREE was set on fire and destroyed. On site there were burnt off branched scattered about and a burnt out stump. Some people set about trying to find the culprits. But what were they going to do with them? Get them to put the REDreadTREE back?

Perhaps this REDreadTREE was telling these chaps something that was unwelcomed? One day someone will ask them maybe?

Rumour has it that the culprits are now quite well known some years on. It seems that if you do do something like this and get a little drunk at the local you are enclined to boast a little. Almost nothing goes unnoticed in Tasmania.

Interestingly, the photograph here was provided by a photo journalist – Simon Wearne – who was just happening to be passing by. Any other burning tree in the Midlands might go relatively unnoticed but this one one had a story. The story of the REDreadTREE burning made the Examiner & Mercury and all the TV & radio news broadcasts in Tasmania. So did the original painting.

THEreadTREE SITE: Woodbury House Woodbury TAS

Click on the image to enlarge

A link to an ABC story about Woodbury House next to the
REDreadTREE site and also under this cloud.
Click Here

WATCH THIS SPACE: THE RED TREE ANTILL PONDS TASMANIA

This article appeared in siglo7 1996

"Why are the trees in the Midlands of Tasmania dying?" It seems that people in the 'middle zone' have been asking this simple question for some time, without a definite answer. What are these dead trees telling us? Who is listening; or for that matter, who is looking? Indeed, who in
their dash through the 'middle zone' were landliterate enough to read the signs of impending disaster?

Is some micro-organism killing these trees? Is it a virus, a bacterium, a fungus? Where did it come from? Or is the problem chemical rather than biological, or both? Who is responsible, and who pays?

Why is it that the affected area so closely mirrors colonial settlement? Is it the sheep and crops, or the fifteen possums to the hectare? Perhaps the trees are just 'old', or perhaps it is the 'ten years drought'. Maybe it is because of the western cultural imperative to civilize land and make it work for us? But who is Us? interest collectors? tax gatherers? dividend reapers? exporters? farmers? environmental activists? Have fools taken charge of paradise?

And why are the trees dying in the 'Middle'? Is this region on the margins, or at the centre? Why order the world in such a way as to mark out a zone that is neither north nor south, but peripheral to urban concern? Was it to create an exploitation zone? Was it to define territory(s)?

How can one dead tree talk about such things, and who will listen? Was it because the Red Tree's questions were read (albeit at 110 kph), that it was scrawled upon and ultimately burnt to the ground?

Ray Norman. Artist: The red tree November 1996

On 13th May 1996 a dead tree was painted red as part of a Landcare 'Landmark Project' The tree stood on Woodbury Farm beside the main north-south highway at Antill Ponds (a point half-way between Hobart and Launceston in the imagination of many Tasmanians) Sometime in August the Landcare Landmark was graffitied, and in the early hours of 18th September 1996 the Red Tree was set on fire and destroyed. In March 1997 the word TREE was installed on the place the original REDreadTREE stood.

It is said that about a million people drive past this site each year. Obviously some of those people are the same people doing so again and again. Things keep happening on this site, people watch and as this site develops some of those stories might be told if people tell them. As they say WATCH THIS SPACE.

Click on map to enlarge