September 19, 2024

Grieving for the Reef

There’s little doubt the Great Barrier Reef won’t be a Wonder of the World much longer. It will almost certainly lose its World Heritage status before the decade is out. The Reef has been under stress for years. Successive governments have known this but done next to nothing about it. They’ve ignored or dismissed the warnings that unless urgent action was taken this Australian icon would not survive. Marine biologists, conservationists – and the successful tourism industry that relied on a healthy Reef teeming with life – are in despair. So are thousands of Australians, including me.

 

The latest report in a series of reports about the health of the Reef have confirmed it is dying. No longer able to withstand the combined impacts of pollution runoff from agriculture and mining industries, the invasive and deadly crown-of-thorns starfish, intense and increasing cyclones and warming waters from climate change, the Reef is steadily expiring. Too many bleaching events, one after another, have killed those spectacular and colourful corals. They had no time to recover so the species that once called the Reef home are also gone. They’re either dying too, or have packed their metaphorical bags and moved south. But some species don’t have that capacity, so death is their fate too.

 

Having written about the pressures the Reef has suffered over many years, I was determined to see it before it was too late. It was already becoming a shadow of its former glory when I did so around 15 years ago. I will never forget the magic experience, but it makes it all the more heart-breaking to think that some of the sea creatures I saw probably no longer exist, or are no longer able to stick around because their food sources have disappeared or they can’t stand the heat.

 

Will humanity wake up to the realisation that we also won’t survive as a species if we fail to protect and look after the environment we all share – marine and land?

 

My response to the latest report was to write this poem and submit it to the Independent Australia’s writing competition. Maybe it will be a winner, and maybe it won’t – but at least it was published, and potentially therefore may have an impact on decision-makers.

 

Grieving for the Reef

 

we cannot say we didn’t know
the scientists warned us long ago
but governments ignored the news
and chose to hold quite different views
about a warming world that’s fuelled by coal
and weather that’s veering beyond control

 

politicians who favour the red or the blue
surely knew they were lies – and couldn’t be true
but they turned a blind eye and accepted the cash
to fund their elections, ignored the backlash
that urged rejecting the proffered largesse
but they didn’t, and now the country’s a mess
all our land and its people are under duress

not only the land, though, a Great Reef is dying
out of sight and most minds, she is barely surviving . . . .
 

To read the rest, dear reader, please click on the IA link

 

https://independentaustralia.net/life/art-display/grieving-for-the-reef-,18902

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Finding a publisher could be getting closer

By Anne Layton-Bennett • July 22, 2026
Attracting the interest of a publisher for this story of a community’s campaign to stop what would have been ‘the world’s fourth largest pulp mill’ being built was never going to be easy, but hoping the first of two 3-minute Literary Speed Dating pitch sessions will prompt at least one of the two publishers to request the full MSS. And preferably both of them. These twice-yearly Perfect Pitch sessions are offered to members of the Australian Society of Authors, and this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of them – mainly because of the need to have a completed MSS before doing so. Three minutes isn’t long to excite the interest of a publisher who is after stories in very specific genres, and who therefore needs to believe your MSS is worth investing the time needed to read it in full. I’m pretty certain I’ve excited the necessary interest, but given Jane will hear the pitches of many more optimistic and talented writers after my morning session today, there are no guarantees. That initial interest might well wane as the day goes on if other writers have written stories that sound far more intriguing – and marketable. One can never forget that aspect of publishing these days: will the book sell. I believe my story will – certainly in Tasmania it definitely will – but a wider Australian readership? That’s an unknown even if my mentor is convinced of the story’s universal appeal.  I’d certainly like to think I’ve caught the zeitgeist wave given the current widespread community unrest over AI data centres, that’s already prompting similar serious opposition, and for many of the same reasons the Tamar Valley’s community opposed the pulp mill. Environmental degradation, threats to public health, water usage – and water shortages in an era of escalating climate extremes – and the constant, relentless noise factor that’s associated with data centres, and AI data centres in particular. I’m crossing my fingers that the second pitch session will be equally positive, and that I could strike it lucky with both publishers requesting to see the full MSS. But I won’t get ahead of myself. I’ll just be keeping all fingers and toes firmly crossed for the next seven days.
Magni

Fiona's gift

By Anne Layton-Bennett • June 14, 2026
It’s taken far too many months for this marvellous model to grace the dedicated desk space in my office. When Fiona comes to visit next she will be very surprised, and hopefully gratified, that her amazing creative talent is finally on display. We’ve known each other for a very long time, and during the insanely busy time when I was helping to run the flower farm, working part-time in a school library, doing a spot of journalism on the side, and fighting the proposed pulp mill that is the subject of the manuscript I’m hoping to get published, Fiona cleaned my house each week. There’s only so much a person can do after all, and it has to be said cleaning our house during those manic years was fairly low down on the list of my priorities. But Fiona is a woman of many talents and she certainly possesses one that I so don’t have: sewing and dressmaking. So over the years she’s also made a few garments based on the pattern of a favourite garment that I was particularly fond of, and she’s also done some clothing alterations for both of us. My skills with needles and thread are limited to sewing on buttons, and taking up hems on John’s too-long pairs of jeans. Anything else is beyond me. But this fabulous model is the pièce de résistance – along with the beautiful crocheted knee warmer she gave me last year. This was when winter was approaching and so determined was I to finish writing the book, I decided to get out of bed at the insane hour of 5am and get in a solid hour’s writing in before dog walking and the demands of the day took over. Fiona was also one of many Tasmanians who needed to be circumspect about her opinion of the pulp mill. It was a project that polarised people, including families and friendships. She was one of several who passed on snippets of useful information, but on the basis of anonymity so it couldn’t be sheeted home to her.  Needless to say Fiona will be one of those whose contribution will be acknowledged – when this book is finally accepted by a publisher.

Signs of spring - when winter's only just arrived

By Anne Layton-Bennett • June 8, 2026
Early lambing season a sign of changing seasons? Or economic reality?

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