A EULOGY TO GRANDFATHER GUM

Hi Everyone,

Today is a sad day. Let me explain. Ever since I have lived in Warradale, I have had the joy of experiencing an ancient gum just down the street from me. It has been the home of many hundreds of birds who have been piping me down the street with their chorus of birdsongs like a unique avian microcosm of our multicultural society.

GRANDFATHER GUM IN HIS FULL GLORY

This tree has been so special to me that I wrote a poem about it some years ago called ‘Grandfather Gum.’ (You can find a video of it on my you tube channel: Julie Wright Australian Poet. If you have my first poetry collection, Infinite Connections, you can find the poem on page 73.) It will help to explain why, when I spoke to one of the workers who was cutting the tree down, I began to cry. It felt so desperately sad to know that this mighty gum, who had survived so many generations and given pleasure to so many families on our street and walkers from around the neighbourhood, had suffered such an ignominious end. (On reading this over, I realised I have even used the relative pronoun reserved for people when referring to this grand old gum! That shows the extent of my feeling for the gum.) It felt just like losing a much-loved member of the family. It seemed unconscionable that a few human beings could just come along and demolish, in a few days, what had taken so many lifetimes to grow. How did we have the temerity to cut down a tree that had brought so much life and pleasure to so many in our community?

A PORTION OF THE TRUNK LEFT FROM THIS MIGHTY GUM.

It had been the breath of life to us for so long, asking for nothing in return. For that reason, I felt compelled to write this letter as a form of eulogy to this beautiful gum because it seemed only right to honour its long and generous life in some way. It makes me so sad that my poem has now become a memorial to this gum, something I could not have imagined when I was writing it. I photographed the gum when it was nothing more than a trunk and then again when a couple of confused cockies came pecking at its bare top, undoubtedly (like me) unable to quite believe this desolate space that once teemed with life.

SOME COCKIES PICK DISCONSOLATELY AT THE BARE TRUNK.

For years I have been extolling the praises of Warradale as a suburb where there are still plenty of glorious old gums along with the bird life that they sustain. It is a great loss to the community, whenever one of these gums have to go. I am not criticizing the council; there is no way they would have gone to the extraordinary expense and effort of removing the gum, unless they felt there was a risk in keeping it. It lost a branch in a storm recently, but there may have been other factors involved in the decision. I am sure it would not have been taken lightly. As we mourn the loss of this gum, let it be a reminder of the glory in the beauty of creation and the joy it brings us every day. And let it be a reminder of the intricate design of the ecosystems that sustain us and need to be appreciated and protected by us, their beneficiaries.

So thank you, Grandfather Gum. You were loved and appreciated.

My very best wishes,

Julie