Walking programme

 

From 1976 until 1992, Judith Wright lived on a beautiful hundred acres of bushland 15 kilometers from Braidwood, near the tiny village of Mongarlowe, which she named "Edge".

Here, in a landscape of casuarina nana heathland and snowgums sloping down to the pristine Mongarlowe River, she wrote her late poetry (published as Phantom Dwelling), and The Cry for the Dead, the pioneering book that rewrites her earlier Generations of Men as a story of dispossession and environmental destruction.

"Edge"

"Edge" is now owned and managed by the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. With their kind permission, two walks will be held here, following a route from ridge to river that Judith wrote about in an essay of that name.

"Half Moon"

During the walk, poet and performer Harry Laing will read poems from Phantom Dwelling that relate to the landscape we will be walking through, as well as excerpts from the essay "From Ridge to River" that describe the walk in Judith's own words.

The walks will be led by seasoned Braidwood bushwalker David Eager.

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Places on the walks are limited. Contact David Eager.

Forest Voices: A walk in Monga Forest with ecophilosopher Val Plumwood
Meet 9.30 Sunday April at Monga turnoff bridge – 19.5 km from Braidwood on the Bateman’s Bay Road – limit of 20. Bring pad, pencil and walking shoes. Detailed instructions at festival office.

Monga forest offers the opportunity to hear the voices of Gondwanaland rainforest.

‘To break out of the culture of human self-enclosure and liberate the Gaian mind, we make a conceptual journey beyond the segregated concepts and vocabularies enforced by the bullying concept ‘anthropomorphism’. Can we move nature from background to foreground, from silent to speaking, hearing sound as voice, seeing movement as action, adaptation as intelligence and responsiveness?’

Discussion and walk, but be prepared to spend long periods listening, in what we so arrogantly call silence.

Photographs courtesy Paris Silvester