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POL MCMAHON
The story so far...
Peter found me under a bridge, sketching the 'Construction in Process'
art event. I was living there, introducing foreign artists to the local
environment and appreciating the wildlife. I had already been to the Living
Museum, years before, and wanted to weed the medicinal garden but once
I got back here there was so much more to get involved in.
What I do here is varied. In some ways I am performing the role of artist-in-
residence, sketching and painting familiar sights around the Museum. I 'cover'
events like a newsman, sketchbook at the ready, getting the pictures the
photographers miss. When the Museum itself is quiet I take a canvas out
into the street and paint heritage subjects in the living state. I've tried
to paint subjects important to the overall heritage of Melbourne's western
suburbs.
But back to the garden. Equally with artist duties the environment shares
my time, from helping Flo, Joyce and Betty on Thursday morning to helping
with the 'Groovy Gardening Team'. Most days bring a question into the Museum
to do with ecology. Gary Vines and Larry Walsh are very good in that field
when they aren't too busy. I have tried to answer the rest of the questions.
As many people know, one of the Museum's strengths is its ecological/historical
library. Like Marie Earle, who volunteers on Sundays, I find that often
the best help I can give is to provide the right book.
And so on. As I do with the artist-in-residency, I do with the ecological
duties, finding important sites in the west and documenting them. There
are many groups involved in their local areas, restoring and regenerating
the indigenous vegetation. We are trying to link them, just as the historical
societies are listed and linked on our web page. They tend to meet outside
office hours, so several Museum members have been attending meetings in
community halls, meetings marked by calls to save sites from development.
I'm an official member of Friends of Westgate Park, the closest park to
the river mouth, but sometimes it seems I'm a friend of half of Melbourne.
Think globally, act locally.
One of the most common themes of environmental/historical education nowadays
is the destruction of the environment by ignorant early settlers. Maribyrnong
survived those invasions moderately well, in the long run. Large areas of
military land were fenced from intensive use and provided valuable urban
habitat for birds and rarer reptiles like the legless lizard. The steep
cliffs of the river often preserve pockets of vegetation, and the wide flood
plain meant meadows where butterflies and other insects could persevere.
Much more of Melbourne looked like our grasslands until living memory.
Now these grasslands are becoming rarer than the rainforests. Now. The early
settlers weren't always ignorant anyway and had a tough time with depressions
and sheep prices. These comfortable times of late have been more environmentally-expensive
than the tough times of the past.
So I do my bit, painting and talking, occasionally walking. Last year
I took two long walks, from Webb Dock to Sunbury at Easter and to Wangaratta
in December. The Easter walk is the one on the Website. I made woodcuts
on that walk and exhibited them here last May. The walk to Wang resulted
in a series of five nature walks and three stage performances to spread
environmental knowledge in 'grassroots' ways.
Introducing people to the grasses they stand on is a thrill, but also
a duty. Many of the children born into the housing developments here and
now have very few opportunities to understand what little grassland surrounds
them. As a child in this region myself I loved the spaces and the wild things.
Now as an adult the Living Museum gives me a chance to perform what I regard
as a vital task. Here I can introduce people to their landscape and depict
places as they are for posterity.
Pol McMahon
* POL IS CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR A POSITION IN IRELAND AS AN ARTIST.
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