I understand the need for jobs and money, that is how capitalism works, there is no ceiling. It is all about growth. But if these plans go ahead there will be nothing left of that coastline. The ecosystem can not sustain the industrialisation at this scale.
Spending time with my cousin, I began to learn more about the projects that are planned for the coastline. A new large Abalone Farm, more wind farms on the coast and there are plans for gas exploration off the coast.
As we arrived on country, I was greeted by the familiar site of the Alcoa Smelter on the Portland foreshore, we passed the fields that had recently been harvested .
The land was dry, the driest I had ever seen it. The main bodies of water I was used to crossing were dry and the animals I saw looked exhausted and sad. The land looked to be at boiling point.
The usual deforestation of country on the drive has also stirred something in me, but on this trip I saw the over industrialisation of the land on a scale I had not see before. There were more wind farms and new power stations.
I recently did a drive from Melbourne Airport to Portland in Victoria's South West, it is the same drive I have been doing since I was a child. A journey home to Gunditjmara country, But this journey felt very different.
