WHERE IS YOUR
INDIGENOUS CITY

WHERE IS YOUR
INDIGENOUS CITY
CHARACTER & TRUTH IN & ABOUT
THE LAND WATER & SKY OF HOBART.
It is a partial lyrical geographic melody sharing
affection and future for visitors too.

iii
DID THEY STOMP ON THE INDIGENOUS VICINITY, THEIR NIBBERLOONE
COUNTRY? DID THEY MOVE FRENETICALLY TO WALL IN A PLACE LIKE THEIR
OWN BACK HOME, FRIGHTENED BY THE PROXIMITY OF THE BUSH-EDGED
NIGHT SHADOWS, CONSOLIDATING BUILDINGS BASTION-LIKE TO TURN
INWARD TO AVOID OUTWARDLY ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR DISCOURTEOUS
IMPOSITION & STIFLING AWAY EVEN THE BROOKEN BEAUTY OF THE HANDY
CRYSTAL SALTEN ESTUARY CONVENIENT FOR SPEARING & A FROLIC OR
THREE. DID THEY STOMP & BUILD BIT BY BIT UNTIL THE WONDER-COUNTRY
IN LOCALE NO LONGER LIVED CENTRE TOWN – SO THAT MORE & MORE
THEY HAD TRAVEL TO FIND SOMETHING LIKE IT & TO MEET THE
MOUHENEENNER THERE WHO MIGHT COURTEOUSLY MIND THEIR CHILDREN
OR TRADE SOME ROO MEAT FOR A DOG.

v

‘ The writing style in Homartian is like John’s paintings - and
I quote the Foreword with a smile in agreement; “a loosely
waxed flow of conscious and subconscious expression from
the evirons & the mental … lush with psychotropic
properties.” Though poetically styled, this book in its
journey reminds me of many most pleasant “Homartian”
classical music concerts. Somehow both take me to a place
in my thoughts, giving me an awareness of beautiful peace,
hope & a sense of freedom & dreaming which strengthen
my wellbeing. Thankyou to John.’
Sandy Latham
PROFESSIONAL MOTHER, WIFE AND KIWITIAN

vii
© Monte John Latham 2013
Monte John Latham asserts the moral right to be identified as the creating author
of this work,
Homartian
and its composite parts.
All rights are reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author.
Debox Publications .
PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2013
TRIM1524_2286
ISBN 978-0-646-59530-6

All that came before,
in particular this beautiful place
that has suffered and grows …
and the last pound of shelled scallops that
was tendered as fare on the tram to North Hobart.
PAINTINGS, COVER, PENCIL & SNAP PHOTO
ILLUSTRATIONS ARE BY THE AUTHOR
A FEW OF THE IMAGES ARE DRAWN FROM
GENERAL PUBLICATION & OF UNKNOWN SOURCE.

ix
WRITER
Son of an electrician and a mother he grew up part of a
unbroken fully organic homogenous family of seven
just prior to television in the outer suburbs of a small
scenic capital city in Tasmania Australia amid abundant
countryside and river coast. After a lengthy
professional sojourn in town character and matters
urban, he now paints, writes and draws plans in a rural
coastal part of home; deep in the islands immediately
south in The Great Southern Land. At times, such as
now, his writing is like his painting; a loosely waxed
flow of edited conscious and subconscious expression
from the evirons & the mental … lush with
psychotropic properties.
With wife & five to share he grew further near Hobart,
battling its economy with faith in the nurture of
familiar locale and this one in particular.
No author is an island; rather merely another
participant and this one with a very very tolerant
participator in Sandy, a very very special piece of New

Zealand and wife. Certainly the kids are triple A +
participators too. He is a decade older than the
picture. I hope you enjoy this light hearted and
impassioned piece.

xi

Homartian
Hear me Homartians, t h e w r i t i n g
h a n d s t r e e t - s w e e p s o u r p i l l o w c l e a n ,
f o r e a s y - e a r e d s i m p l e t o w n h e a r t s ;
i t m a r r i e s t h o s e w h o b i n d t h e

g r e a t i n f i n i t e i n t e l l i g e n t , r e m e m b e r s
t h e h u g e s w a t h e o f l i t t l e s p a r r o w s ,
n a y m a y b e s t a r l i n g s , p e a k - h o u r
l i g h t e d f l i g h t e v e n i n g s w e e p i n g t o o
t h e D e r w e n t r e s t i n g o n t h e b r i d g e ,
w h a l e s c a l v i n g i n h e r b a y s m a k i n g
n o i s e e n o u g h t o k e e p B a t t e r y P o i n t
a w a k e , a b a l o n e a n d c r a y a t t h e s h o r e
a m e r e s t o n e - t h r o w a w a y , v e r y n e a r
t h e T o w n H a l l . N o w o o l l e d p u l l o v e r
y o u r m o u n t a i n f a c e . N o k o w t o w t o
f i n i t e c u r r e n c y d i s g r a c e ; d ir t y f o o t e d
i n t r u s i o n B l u n d s t o n e
ED. NOTE:
ONE COULD READ
STRAIGHT THROUGH FIRST,
THEN COME BACK TO PICK
UP THE DISPLAY PAGES.

3
Blundstone boot-heal broken skin on the Tharkian silken perfect pad cushion plant billiard
green moss – photo is not a cushion plant however - hundreds of years in the growing, serious
affront across its perfect stone companion.
R E F E R G L O S S A R Y F O R :
B l u n d s t o n e , G o n d w a n i c ,
T h a r k i a n , t e s t o s t e r o n i o u s
c o n n e c t o r , d o l l a r - r i g h t …

5
b o o t - h e a l b r o k e n s k i n o n t h e
T h a r k i a n s i l k e n p e r f e c t - p a d c u s h i o n
p l a n t b i l l i a r d g r e e n m o s s h u n d r e d s
o f y e a r s i n t h e g r o w i n g , s e r i o u s
a f f r o n t a c r o s s i t s p e r f e c t s t o n e
c o m p a n i o n p r e s e n c e s o a k i n g
m o r n i n g s u n f o r e o n s s h e l t e r e d f r o m
t h e w e s t e r n w i n d s , g r a f i t t i e d
s o m e t h i n g a k i n a s h a m e f u l l y w a r p e d
t e s t o s t e r r o n i o u s c o n n e c t o r m a k i n g
o b s c e n e c o n t a c t w i t h t h i s a w e . N o t o
c l o u d i n g t h e G o n d w a n i c b e a u t y
s e n d i n g s t a l w a r t t h e s t o n e y t r a c e r y

o f w i n d s a m i l l i o n a w o n d e r
a r i c h n e s s
red-green-amber….. h u n d r e d s o f y e a r s i n t h e g r o w i n g ,
s e r i o u s a f f r o n t a c r o s s i t s p e r f e c t s t o n e c o m p a n i o n

7
o f o l d o l d o l d l ic h e n g r e e n s a l l k i n d a
a s t a n d i n g a l o o k i n g - a t u s - n o t
a w a i t i n g s o m e c a b l e d i m p o s t .
Y e s n o ; f o r o u r v i b r a n t c h a r a c t e r o f
p l a c e , s m a l l h h o m a r t i a n , s i m p l y
s i t t i n g o v e r y o n d e r , l o o k i n g b a c k a t
t h e s o m e t i m e s d e e p b l u e s l i g h t l y
h a z e d d o l l a r - r i g h t s t o n e c a r d b o a r d
c u t o u t a g a i n s t t h e s k y , s o m e t im e s
l u s h g l i s t e n i n g w i t h w e t t e d S p r i n g
u n b u r n t f o r f i f t y y e a r s , t r a d i n g
c l o u d s h a d o w s m o t t l i n g m o v e m e n t
f o o t h i l l t o f o o t h i l l ; a v e r y p r i v i l e g e d
c l o s e f i n i t e d i s t a n c e f r o m
t h e r e d - g r e e n - a m b e r b e e p -

9
b e e p - b e e p e l e c t r o n i c a b s t r a c t s o f o u r
u r b a n e p i l l o w . W a r m b l u e s k y p u r e
a i r a n c i e n t m o s s w i n d w h i s t l e d
e r o s i o n i n d u s t r i a l s i l e n c e j u x t o e d
w i t h C o l l i n s i n t e r s e c t i n g M u r r a y
a r u s h a b r m m m - a n d N o r t h H o b a r t
C e n t r a l a t e a s e . N a y i n f a c t n o
d i s t a n c e a t a l l , f o r t h a t m o u n t a i n ’ s
t o e n a i l s a r e c l i p p e d r i g h t h e r e a t t h e
S a l a m a n c a q u a r r y a n d d i s p l a y
g n a r l e d a n d w a s h e d b y t h e s a l t y
r i v e r , g i v i n g g r i t t y h o m e s t o
i n d i v i d u a l c r a b s a n d o t h e r s – b u t

o n l y i f t h e r e o u r c h i l d r e n c a n k n o w
o f t h i s w h e n t h e y w a l k t h e b o t t o m
o f S t r e e t C a n y o n , b l i n k e r e d t o o
c r a b s AT HOME ON BATTERY POINT TOENAILS red-
green-amber….. h u n d r e d s o f y e a r s i n t h e
g r o w i n g s t o n e c o m p a n i o n

11
b y p o l e d w i r e s , e x h a u s t , b r a k e - s h o e
d u s t a n d s i g n s … o n l y i f t h e c h i l d r e n
c a n s e e t h r o u g h t h i s .
P i l l o w v i t a l i s e d i n a t a n n i n
t o u c h e d p u r e c r y s t a l l i n e b r e w f r o m
h e r c h i l l c o n d e n s a t i o n s b e f o r e t h e y
m e e t t h e b r i n e . F i g h t i n g f o u l
e x c r e m e n t w h e r e w e d r e w d r i n k i n g
w a t e r ; f a l l i n g i l l - k n o w i n g n o t w h y .
Y e t g l o r i o u s f i r e g l o w s o n t h e b r o w n
e y e s a s t h e e y e s ’ h a n d s , c o m f o r t a b l e
g n a r l e d k i t c h e n t o e n a i l s i n t h e l e a f

c r u n c h s o i l , t u r n i n t h e c o a l s a h u g e
d o l l a r - f r e e c r a y f i s h
t
a
l
l
e
s
t
o
f
t
a
l
l
t
a
l
l
y
e
s
t
a
l
l
g
u
m

13
g r a b b e d i n s h a l l o w d i v e t w o
h u n d r e d s t e p s a w a y . T h a t s a m e g l o w
r e f l e c t i n g f r o m b l u e e y e s , a w a k e n i n g
a p a l e m a n ’ s s l e e p i n g p a l l i d
i n d i g e n u i t y – a p a l e m a n ’ s
i n d i g e n u i t y . C a n h i s h a n d s t u r n h e r e
s u c h a c r a y , n a y n o t t o d a y : y e t
E l i z a b e t h M a l l , i n s t r a n g e , i s m o r e
p e d e s t r i a n a f f a b l e t h a n t h e s o c a l l e d
‘ b a s t a r d s c r u b ’ i n t h i s p l a c e t h r o u g h
w h i c h t h e s h i p ’ s s u r v e y o r h a c k e d
m a c h e t e - p r u n e d a l a r g e f e l l e d
e u c a l y p t l o g b r i d g i n g t h a t

c r y s t a l l i n e f l o w . T h a t l o g a m e r e
l i m b i n c o m p a r i s o n t o t h e t a l l e s t o f
t a l l t a l l y e s t a l l , t h e R e g n a n s g u m s
g r o w n , g r o w n , w a t e r e d a n d g r o w n
r i g h t h e r e . T h a t l o g a f i r s t s t i t c h i n
t h e r o a d t o L a u n c e s t o n ; a n d t h e
c r y s t a l l i n e f l o w - e v e n t u a l l y
n u i s a n c e a n d s o d e a l t w i t h b y t h e
H o m a r t i a n c i v i l e n g i n e e r ; c o v e r e d
d r a i n s , f l o w d i v e r s i o n , g o n e b u r i e d ,
b r u t a l i s e d , m o d i f i e d , c o l l e c t i n g n e w
s t o r m d r a i n s f r o m e v e r y w h i c h w a y .
T h i s m o u n t a i n - b o r n b r o o k g a v e u p

15
O
O
O
Spirit in this mall – by the writer

Rosella in a
Regnans gum
near the hole in
the mall 18o4 –
by Mont

17
i t s g h o s t : b a b b l i n g b r o o k b u r i e d ,
t o w n p a v e m e n t s s e e k i n g l e v e l w a l k s
l a y o v e r t h e n a p e y u n d u l a t i o n s ,
r i v e r b a n k s , o v e r h a n g i n g t r e e s , b i r d s ,
r e f l e c t i o n s , y a b b i e s , d r i n k i n g f a u n a .
T o d a y l i k e l y w i l l n o t s e e d o z e d w i d e
a s w a t h e o f r e a l e s t a t e ; i t t o e x h u m e
f o r t h e c h i l d r e n t o s e e . I f o n l y t h e y
c o u l d s i m p l y s e e . F r e e t h e l e y l i n e s
f r o m y o u r k e r b s a n d g u t t e r s , r e m o v e
t h e t r a f f i c f i n e s f r o m y o u r r i g h t e o u s
m a n o e u v r e s , l o o s e t h e w o m b a t s i n y o u r
c i t y g r i d s a n d t i g e r s n a k e s i n t o y o u r

c a b l e c a r , d e l iv e r y o u r f o o d o f f
l i m b s a n d w i l d , b r e a k t h e
t h r e e p l a n e d c o r n e r s i n y o u r r o o m , a
f r e e d m o t o r c y c l e g e t s y o u t o t h e
k i t c h e n , l o o s e t h e e l e c t r i c s p i r i t
t h r o u g h t h e o n e s p a c e b e t w e e n u s
a l l , m a k e o b s o l e t e t h e i t e m i s e d
r e g u l a t i o n , b r i n g a l i v e u n a f f l i c t e d
m u t u a l i t y a n d g u n g - h o j o y , b r i n g i n
a b l a s t o f s p i r i t - c o s m o s t o m a r r y t h e
s n o w y w h i t e c a d a s t e r e d c u b e w i t h
g n a r l s m a r t e n e d e a r t h e n l i m b , t o
p l a n i t a l l t o g e t h e r u n d e r a w i s e

19
From raindrops to trickle flow: up where the trout dare not go ..
m o u n t a i n - b o r n b r o o k g a v e u p i t s g h o s t
C H E C K G L O S S A R Y :
ley lines, convict camp

Some brave little mountain fern shaking their fist in the hole in the
mall where the buried brook today dribbles through seeming
starved of its groundwater

21
Three planed corner – usually internal & seen at the ceiling. Once unknown
to prehomartians. One of peoplekind’s most significant creations; the corners
seem to counterplace the circular belt of sky that blends with the horizon
below it and the dome of the heavens above.

e t e r n a l p l a n a n d l e a r n t h e u l t r a - v i t a l
h e a r t - p u l s i n g c r u x o f w h y a n d h o w a
w o m a n l o v e s o n e m a n s u c h t h a t
t h e w o r t h o f a s m a l l b o x o f
c h o c o l a t e s m u s t b e m o r e t h a n h e r
m a n ' s m o s t a m b i t i o u s p l a n , a t i n y
g o s s a m e r - b u i l t t h r e a d o f w e b a n d a
p u l s e o f c u t t l i n g c o l o u r c a n e m b r a c e
a n d r a p t u r e a s t e e l e n c a b l e b u t
t h e r e ' s n e ' e r t h e t i m e t o s a y s o i n t h e
p a r l i a m e n t n o r t h e k i t c h e n . I n
u n d u t i f u l l y s h a p e d m o m e n t u m ,
i n t e r n a l i s i n g i n c r e m e n t b y b i t ,

23

d e e p e r g o o u r c i t i z e n s g r e a t a n d
m e r e a s t a l l e r c h i l d r e n , i n t e r n a l i s e ,
i n t e r n a l i s e , i n t e r n a l i s e , p l a s t e r e d
w a l l s , w a l l s , c o v e d c o r n i c e , c o r n e r
h e r e t u r n t h e r e s t r a i g h t a l o n g
t h r o u g h a d o o r , o ’ r h e a d w i r e s s i g n s
a d v e r t s s t a r b l o c k i n g l a m p s ,
p a v e m e n t s s t i f l e n a t u r e ’ s p h y s i c a l
b r e a t h , u n ’ r f o o t c o n c r e t e s l a b .
U n ’ r f o o t t h y a l a c i n e s t o o l , h o m e
t h r i v e s o u t o f n a t u r e , b e c o m e s
c u l t u r a l f i r s t , … n a t u r a l s e c o n d …
n a t u r a l s e c o n d m o r e s o a n d s o s a t - o n

25
i n t h e p r e s u m p t i o n o f h u g e
a b u n d a n c e i n t h e b u s h . T h e
e c o l o g i c a l c h i c k e n s c o m e h o m e t o
r o o s t i n t h e e n v e l o p e d o f f i c e s o f t h e
s p r a w l i n g b l a n k e t , k o s h e r f a s h i o n s .
K n o c k , k n o c k … w e k n o w y o u ’ r e
h o m e m o t h e r o f H o m a r t , p u l s i n g i n
b i o l o g i c a l , c u l t u r a l a n d g e o l o g i c a l
p a s s i o n s , g r a s p in g u p f i s t t h r o u g h
t h a t c r a c k i n t h e a s p h a l t e d
s o c i o f o o t p a t h . A n a s s w a s o u r
H o m a r t i a n p o l i t i c : e v e n n o w w i l l i t
w a l k o ’ r i t s o w n p e o p l e ’ s p a l m

27
f r o n d s t o f a c e t h e o p e n s l a t h e r o f
s u s p e c t i n g s o c i e t y , w a r p e d b y s h a r p
w i t t r a i n e d a t i t b y s p e c i a l i n t e r e s t s
a n d s o t h e r e s o l u t i o n f o r a c t i o n i s
n o t w h o l l y b r i l l i a n t . S u c h a p o l i t i c
w o n ’ t b e l i t t e r i n g t h e h e a v e n l y
f r e e d o m s , i n s p i r a t i o n a n d t h a t m i s t y
b l u e d a y t i m e c o v e r i n g t h e s t a r s u p
t h e r e , n o r i n t h e n i g h t i m e t o o t h e
t i m e l e s s g n a r l y m a g m a a n d w a t e r
g e o m o r p h u n ’ r f o o t c o v e r i n g t h e s t a r s
b ’ l o w a n d o ’ c o u r s e t o o t h e y ’ r e o f f t o
s i d e a l l a r o u n d . W h a t f u t u r e , ‘ t w e e n
t h e u p p e r a n d l o ’ e r s t a r s , o f o u r
t r e a s u r e , h u n d r e d s o f i s l a n d s
c u r r e n t l y c a l l e d e n - c o n g l o m e r a t e
‘ T a s m a n i a ’ , l e a v i n g t h e b i g g e s t o f
t h e m b a r e o f a n a m e o f i t s o w n

Spirit in this fire-
roasted spud – by the
writer

29
a n d s o a l l t h e s w e e t e r o f f r a g r a n c e .
W h a t f u t u r e i t s t o w n s , o n c e c l e a v e d
d e e p l y i n t i m a t e w i t h i d e n t i t y -
n u r t u r i n g l o c a l p l a c e b o u n t y ; a
m o u n t a i n t o s u m m i t a n d a f o o t y
m a t c h w i t h t h e H u o n v i l l i a n - c h i l d r e n
o f a b o a t - l o a d o f I r i s h w o m e n . W h a t
f u t u r e i s t h e r e w h e r e t h e t o w n c e n t r e
g r o w s a n d k i n d a t h r i v e s i n i t s d i r t y
o l ’ s t y l e o v e r t o p t h e o l d c o n v i c t
c a m p , b u t o n l y w h i l e c h o k i n g i t
m u c h l y a w a y . T h e t o w n -
l i m i t s a n d s h e - o a k e d
r o s e l l a s a l w a y s n e a r
e n o u g h ; t h e o l d
H o m a r t i a n s g r e w k n o w i n g - n o t t o n o t

g l a z e a w a y w i t h t h e i r b o d i l y
f l u i d i t i e s t h e w o n d e r o f t h i s p l a c e ,
b a s i c a l l y c a r e l e s s t h a t a c c i d e n t a l l y
s o m e o f t h i s p l a c e d i d r e m a i n i n
t o w n . C a m p e r s , s h a c k i e s , e c o -
d e v e l o p e r s , i n d u s t r y ; m a k i n g
i n t i m a t e l y d e t a i l e d d e v e l o p m e n t
l i m i t s , e p i d e r m i s t r a n s i t i o n s t o f r e e
w i l d w o n d e r ; m a k e s o m e b o l d l y
s t r u c t u r e d p r o p o s a l s . U n e a r t h t h e
s p i r i t a t l e a s t o f t h e b u r i e d
c r y s t a l l i n e f l o w , f r e e i n g i t t o t h e
c h i l d r e n . S h a r e w i t h o t h e r s a n d
c h e r i s h C a r l t o n ’ s b l u f f f o r i t s n a t u r e
s i m p l y b e i n g i n a c o n v e n i e n t p l a c e
a n d S e v e n M i l e ’ s h i l l a n d S n u g ’ s

31
… ENOUGH SAID; KEEP IT IN PLACE

SEE GLOSSARY: S e v e n M i l e ’ s
h i l l , S n u g D u n a l i e n s ,
C o r i n n i a n s
Our grotty little heart up Cascades in company with a buried brook.

33
Carlton Bluff – by Mont. Carlton; once a treasured homartian shack getaway.

b l u f f t o o . I n b u i l d i n g a n 8 t h W o n d e r ,
e n h a n c e o u r 1 s t
, t h e G o n d w a n i a n
t r e a s u r e i s l a n d s t o w h i c h b l i n d l y
a n d f a i n t o f h e a r t w e r e f e r a s ‘ t h e
S t a t e ’ b u t r e a l l y m e a n i n g
H o m a r t i a n s , D u n a l i e n s , C o r i n n i a n s
t o o , i n a w e s o m e p l a c e ; i m m u n e f r o m
S t a t e a r e o u r i s l a n d s a n d w a t e r s o u r
h o m e a n d p r i m a r y p o t a t o p a t c h - a
f o r e w o r d b y G o d . H o m a r t i a n s
c u l t i v a t e f r a m e - o f - m i n d , f r a m e - u p
c u l t i v a t i o n o f p l a c e , d i s c r e t i o n a r y
r e s p o n s e s , c o m m o n s e n s e . F a c e t h e
l i m i t s , o i l e d e p i d e r m i s u n s c a t h e d
a n d d o i n g t h a t n o w ; d o e s t h e
b o u n d a r y t o s t a r v a t i o n o n e d a y f a c e

35
r i g h t a b a c k a l o o k i n g a g a w k i n g – t h e
r a t i o n i n g o f e n e r g y h a v i n g b e e n
m e r e l y a f o o l i s h n e g l i g e n t w o o l -
o v e r .
T h i s H o m a r t i a n v i l l a g e i s a w e s o m e
i n t h e h i g h s p o t s , g l o s s i e s , i n t e r i o r s
a n d e p h e m e r a l v i t a l i t i e s ; b u t I l o n g
t h e r e f o r d e e p j u n g l e i n m y
e p h e m e r a … a n d d e s e r t t o o ; I s o a k -
u p t h e v a g u e d i s t a n t d e e p o c e a n a n d
i c y w i l d e r n e s s r e t u r n i n g t h e
e x h i l a r a t i o n l i k e f u l f i l l i n g c a m p i n g .
M y b e s t o f h o m e s a l w a y s r e q u i r e s
t h a t t i n g l y a w e o f t h e l i k e s o f
s l e e p i n g u n d e r s t a r s e n p l e i n a i r e n

The hole where the fern shakes its fist.

37

r o o t e d g r o u n d w a r m e d b y s t a r s a n d
m a g m a b e l o w , a w a k e n i n g b y t h e
v i l l a g e r i v e r , o f f t o t r a f f i c l e s s w o r k
n e a r b y , h o m e h a p p y g n o m e r a t h e r
n o t f u m e d e p l e t e d . E t e r n a l
e p h e m e r a l h a n d c r a f t e d c o u n t r y
v i l l a g e m a k i n g u s e o f t h e c r e a t i o n s
o f t h e b i g b i g c i t i e s a n d i n a b i g b i g
c l e a v e t h e t w o m u s t f l o w f l o w
t o g e t h e r l i t t l e b a c k y a r d b i g p o l i t i c s .
F o c u s t h e n u r t u r e ; w i l d n a t u r a l f r e s h
a n d b r i n e y e s t u a r y - a n a t u r a l
e d i f i c e l a p p i n g n e a r y o u r h e a r t , t i n y

39
p r e t t y c i t y , t i c k l i n g t h e t o e s o f a n
o p p o s i t e n a t u r a l e d i f i c e - a
h i l l h i p p e d m o u n t a i n . T w e e n t h e t w o ,
s a t i n t h e r e , h a n d m a c h i n e - b u i l t
s m i t e s i n g r o w i n g m a n y o f o u r o w n
a n d b l i n d i n g t h e m w i t h d e a d a i r ,
p l a s t i c , s t u n n e d m i n d s , f l u o r e s c e n t
l i g h t s a n d b o r i n g p l a i n
e x p r e s s i o n s o f e c o n o m i c p r i o r i t y .
T h a t ’ s t h e q u a n d a r y o f H o m a r t i a n -
s u l l i e d n a t u r e . T h e p o p u l a t i o n i s
n o t a s p u r e a s c r y s t a l l i n e w a t e r

f l o w . C u l t u r e t h a t s p o i l s o u r
c u l t u r e -
p o l i t i c s w e d e s e r v e . C a m p e r s
u n i t e . H a v e t h e p l a n n e r s f o r g o t y a s ! ! ?
M ’ s w e e t i e m ’ d a u g h t a
f e w d a y s u p t h e c o a s t ; y ’ k n o w t h e
s c e n e , e x u b e r a n t e x h i l a r a t e d p r i m a l
w a r r i o r u n l e a s h e d , g o o d o l d

41
f a s h i o n e d n a m e l e s s - i s l a n d c a m p i n g ;
n o t l i k e l y f o g o t t e n : j u s t s m a l l
i n c r e m e n t s : -
v e h i c l e b a r r i e r l o g s m o v e d i n ; f i r s t
p h a s e h e r i t a g e b a r r i e r , s m e l l y
t o i l e t s , c o m m e r c i a l m a n a g e m e n t a l l
f i r e b a n n e d c a r a v a n e n c o u r a g e d . T h e
p a l e o f o u r o f f i c e - s t u n n e d c o u l d l o v e
i t . P e r h a p s m y s t e r i o u s n e i g h b o u r s
o v e r a c c e s s w i l l p r e s i d e ; l e a v i n g a

43
t h i n s t r i p f o r i l l e g a l c a m p i n g . A l l
j u s t p o e t i c p o l i t i c r e s p o n s e t o
p i g g i e s l e a v i n g l i t t l e f l y - r i d d e n
p a p e r s t r e a m e d p a t s i n c r e m e n t a l
e x c r e m e n t s b l e n d e d w i t h b r o k e n b e e r
g l a s s a n d j u n k , a e s t h e t i c a n d
c h o l e r i c f o u l i n g t o a n y c r y s t a l l i n e
r i v u l e t w h i l e w e l o o k t o c a m p i n g
h e r i t a g e i n h e a l t h y c o m m u n i t y
l i f e s t y l e a r o u n d a c r a y e d f i r e n o t a
g a s l a m p n o t a p i x e l . S a v e o u r s o u l
o u r c a m p i n g h e r e o u r p o t a t o e s f o r
s u r e - c h a r r e d c o a l c o o k e d j a c k e t s o r

45

Old man River (the Domain grandstand would block Betsy & south Arm there)
by Mont

47
s t a i n l e s s s t e e l m a s h , h m m h m m .
N u r t u r e o u r s u b u r b a n i n t e r i o r
l o u n g e r o o m s t o o , i n c o m m u n i t y a n d
c o u n t r y s i d e , k e y t o h e a l t h y
e v e r y t h i n g ; e l a t i o n b y i n d i v i d u a l
a n d s h a r e d o w n e r s h i p a n d r i g h t f u l
p l a c e i s t h e c a b l e - f r e e p i n n a c l e o f
o u r p o l i t i c . C o u r t e o u s n a m e l e s s -
i s l a n d e r c o u n t r y b o d i e s a g r e e a n y
h o u s e h o l d e r b e i n g i n c o n v e n i e n c e d
b y i n n o c e n t s o c i o - p o l i t i c r e c e i v e s
c o m p e n s a t i o n o f p e r s o n a l p u b l i c
a p o l o g y a t l e a s t . L a n d - i n t e r v e n t i o n

m o m e n t a t a n g l e v a l u e s d i f f e r e n t t o
t o d a y ’ s ; B r i t i s h B u l l d o g g r a n t s a n d
c l a s s - c o n s c i o u s n e s s l a i d o v e r t h e
w a y s o f t h e l i k e s o f w o o l l y h e a d e d
e n d e m i c b r o w n m a n K i n g B i l l y a n d
t h o s e o f h i s c o u s i n k i n d w h o l i v e d i n
t h i s , t h e i r N i b a l u n i c l o c a l e . A l l t h i s
a p a r t o f t h e d i v e r s e v a l u a b l e s ,
s o c i a l , h i s t o r i c , m i n e r a l , a e s t h e t i c ,
u n t o u c h a b l e , h o n o u r a b l e o r w h a t e v e r
- o w n e d a s p l a c e b y l o c a l
c o m m u n i t y ; a l l t h i s i s s u p r e m e .
L o c a l o w n e r s h i p w i t h p o l i t i c a l

49
s u p r e m a c y i s m o d i f i e d b y
a g r e e m e n t s i n r e g i o n s a n d b e y o n d .
P r o p e r l y f u n d a m e n t a l l y y o u r y a r d -
n o t y o u r f e d e r a t i o n - b e a t s t h e h e a r t
o f h e a l t h i e s t c o m m u n i t y .
H o m a r t i a n s w e e p t h e p i l l o w g l o b a l
c o m p l e m e n t a r y a m i d l o c a l v i l l a g e
a l w a y s f r e e o f o r g o n e d a m p i n g
w a r p e d t e s t o s t e r o n i c c o n n e c t i o n .
S l o w t h e M c D o n o - c a b l e o v e r - r i d e .

P r a h n a W a f t i n g f r o m M e l a l e u c a – by Mont
G L O S S A R Y : N i b a l u n i c ,
M e l a l e u c a , K i n g B i l l y ,
B u l l d o g , P r a n a , o r g o n e ,
M c D o n o e t c

51

S o m e d o i n g s a r e s i g n i f i c a n t t o t h e
w h o l e o f t h e i s l a n d s ; a l l a f f e c t s o m e
s m a l l l o c a l e a n d s o a r e r e g i o n a l l y
s i g n i f i c a n t a n d o f l o c a l i n t i m a c y ; t h e
h e a l t h i e s t w a y - l o c a l c u l t u r a l
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s s u i t i n g f i n e l y f o r
h o m e i n t e r a c t i v i t i e s a n d v i s i t i n g
V i s i t a r t i o n s . A v o c a d o ? . . . n o t h a n k s
j u s t h a d o n e ; T r i a b u n n a t h e n , n o
j u s t h a d a b a g e l . L o u n g e s u p r e m e
u p - t o - t h e - m i n u t e k e y b o a r d
e v a l u a t i o n s i n H o m a r t i a n v o i c e s a t
h o m e .

53
GLINT ON THE HORIZON – by Mont

55
P e e l o f f t h e w r a p p e r , h o p e i t ’ s a
l i q u e u r , p o p o n e i n t h e p o c k e t f o r a
s t r e e t b o r n s o u l ; o r a r e y o u a l i e n -
p e r h a p s n o t s o m u c h n o w h a v i n g
e a s y - e a r e d t h i s v o i c e o f p i l l o w -
s w e e p i n g t y p e , b u t i f y o u h a v e t o
l e a v e c a n w e c o m e t o o ; a w a y f r o m
t h i s q u i e t l i t t l e t o w n , e v e n t h i s
n a m e l e s s i s l a n d w h e r e t h e g u m m y
s h e - o a k c o l o u r g r e e n s h a n g i n s l o w
m o v i n g t i m e s h a p e a n d m e r g e f o r t h e
p o e t s e y e a c r o s s t h e g e n t l i s h o c h r e d
g r a s s h i l l s c a w i n g w i t h d e e p b l a c k

57
c r o w s ; ‘ t h a a a r t h a a r k t h a r k ’ t h e y
c a w c a a w f r e s h e n e d b y t h e
l i g h t e n i n g g r e e n l o r i k e e t s f l i r t i n g
s w e e p t h e d a p p l e d l i m b s f l o w n i n
w a t t l e t o c a s u a r i n a f r o m t h e d e e p
d e e p h e a r t a w a y f r o m t h e s e a n e s t l e d
i n c r a c k l i n g b a r k g r o u n d l i t t e r a
b l u e t o n g u e l i z a r d i n s h e l t e r e d
h o l l o w p r o b a b l y u n a w a r e o f t h e
p r a h n a f r o m M e l a l e u c a a n d f a r a w a y
i c e c o n t i n e n t . J u s t l i k e w e q u i e t
H o m a r t i a n , m i n d - a n t e n n a e
w i t h d r a w n h a l f c o n s c i o u s o f b u t

59
i n f a c t e n j o y i n g t h e e n e r g i e s f r o m
a n A n t a r c t i c s t o r m l a p p i n g t h e l o c a l
b e a c h n e a r t h e i c e c r e a m s h o p ,
p r e f e r r i n g y o u r c o u n t r y r o o t s ,
l o v i n g o u r i n d u s t r i a l a n t e n n a e .
B e i n g r o w i n g d o in g
$∑

IIInnndddiiigggeeennnooouuusss CCCiiitttyyy
Well … here we are … and there we
were. Among it are a pair of feet
tuned like unto eardrums to the
ground listening
and feeling the ephemeral familiars
and the new events heralding.
The feet unclad, well travelled callous and easily

reflexed to stealth health and fun above the soils
and leaf crunch of a well-watered territory of
awesome multiseason dynamics jeweled with
living intrinsic, wafting in air, currents, rustles,
bubbles and nothing missing. Nothing missing.
Maybe another abalone shellfish … yes, that
would make the family happier after a long
journey back south. The tall island walker, eyes
lofty above an ant scurrying over a mountainous
big toe, not only standing but being at a stage of

3
his motion and sweaty from pursuit of a furred
food, is present on sloping land at the edge of a
swathe of tea-tree scrub beside a pure brook that
was far wider than his leap potential. To the side,
glassy flowed reflections of tall tall trees lightly
swaying at the tips way up there in the breeze
bearing prahna from vast ocean westage carrying
through to the much loved east. His eyes are
seeing currently north-east across the tidal brook
estuary - which is shared by another small brook

entering from the far side - past well rooted aged
deep blue green brown trees casuarinas fronded.
An eagle bird settles talons into a salmon fish near
a shore distant even by canoe, across a respectable
river flowing increasingly deep and itself
engrossed in the salty flavor of the sea. Close in his
gaze is a small island by which the bracken brook
waters joined that salted deep. He could shimmy
across the brook bank, along the wet flattish
sandspit and rock-hop across there to join the

5
family, old and young breasted and chested
smiled and disgruntled, at the treasured fire
brought by ember stick from immemorial
intergenerational elsewhere.
Being here is beautiful, relating it to other parts, a
day, five days, a moon away around and back; all
of which he knows well. He feels it, he doesn’t
think it – not at all … he doesn’t read – words …
no idea. He stood firm a moment unaware to
interpret the vast amount of what his feet could
hear, enlivened through elder, brother and
neighbour stories of huge canoes with pale people

of other tongues at the ocean edges - behind the
local worms, minerals and mountain echoes -
emanating from an antipodean activity where two
numbed leather-clad feet stood dead deaf on a
squashed cockroach. These feet’s ears up on their
hatted head hear the rhythmic lapping of brine
indeed on ocean-ready planked hull. There are
gull birds there too, but additionally on shore is
immense peopled activity and among it his family
is swaddled in and among many small
townhouses allowing only smaller squares of
sunlight and one-sided fire. The eyes everywhere
in these vaguely title-boundaried built ownerships

7
are absorbed in skyblocked constructed
cupboards, hot plates, pump taps, oil lamps,
constructed seats and beds and tables – all secured
by shelters of cooked clay and sawn nailed wood.
The earth here at the other side is further stifled
under the leathered feet by constructed floor,
required against the soil exposed, with its
domestic issues, by trampling on virgin grass a
generation ago. Stifled and missing here; as the
pavement grows the consensus view notices
nothing missing. A molecule of smoke blown up
down and round from the southern ocean finds
thunderstruck company with that belching from

coalfired chimneys among thousands of houses
and tooled workplaces stores and market places
all of fixed abode. And clothes; seeking washing
machines to free them from smelly sweat and
washboard wear. There they were …. well on their
way … ahoot and hey hey. Something has made
them well on the way to solar cells, extended
leisure, reading screens and optic conduits …. all
will spring from an earthy heart, continent or
island. But not all earthy beginnings find attention
to such things. Maybe it’s King Billy’s cousin by
marriage standing firm a while longer on the
brookbank near this tiny island off an island.

9
Through his feet came no comprehension that the
hand of the land of the bustling city was about to
clasp his own - we trust so and as it should - in
this raw natural territory of firm notional
boundaries securing hunting, people & personal
effects among and across an unowned common
land. The hand arrived, several moons later in a
gripping of crew assistance in crossing a plank of
English oak from a boggling huge canoe with
white flapping wings of recent, he’d heard,
moored upflow in the salty river, onto that island,
as it conveniently rose steep & deep – the family
camp, now elsewhere up the little brook but only

two minutes by worn track and mouheneennan
(the people) swiftfeet and in sight of the old little
island-camp’s biodegrading coals and shells.
There was no comprehension but his feet always
remembered that spot on that bank in their
nibberloone country. The spot was and remains
locally pivotal between the big river, the two little
ones, the little island (little toe of kananyi, the
mountain) and the nape in which he later camped;
there were fossils gondwanian and they remain
there now. There were shells and bone, stone
shaped on the far east ocean edge and brought
home and the ground’s all but invisible patina of

11
pattering listening feet large and small, busy and
leisurely – mostly all still there resting all covered
and changed and shifted.
This teller knows you know the story of how if he,
our man, was still standing in that spot, the hand
that should and may well have extended
eventually would have buried him to his thighs
with stone fill drawn from his nearby echoing
patina-ladened playground, capped with cream
coloured macadam rock from elsewhere and more
eventually again with a hands depth of bitumen
layered hardstand from God knows where and on
top of that a grotty black soot from automotive

brake shoes. In there too came an exciting moment
when an imported working elephant let go a faecal
pat, opening thought and freshening the broader
nature. There he’d be standing in the shiftings of
time, no idea of the sign ‘Campbell Street’ in front
of a huge high face of biscuit-coloured brick
casting shadow and blocking blue clouded
birdways. The biscuit brick was broken by the
elephants tailed stern as it penetrated its way
along the causeway. Our man’s spine shivered a
little as he stood there clinging to his home and the
rock-hop across to the little island – it had grown,
the rockhop, or rather it had been sat upon with

13
relocated local rocks to make easy walk and
carriage from that flapping planked vessel to the
flapping canvassed humpies up on the rise; all
under the name of some key person, antipodean
and not even anywhere near here – and under the
captains hat felty and folded. Nothing at all like
mudded dreadlock, wallaby skin or sea salted
black curls. At his left the sparkling brook was
grotted and buried to become a bustling delighted
market place and then a city hall (with capitals ha)
… and snappy little domes on the corners. Over
his shoulder a colorful little pub and over the
other, ‘the’ new ‘government’ built their port

waterside interiors – leaving a little patch of the
actual original brookbank shining through
gasping for air; for it lived down there. Directly
behind him and aligned to the rockhop runs a
bitumen ribbon named macquarie street, with
capitals and with white thermoplastic markings,
traffic lights and concrete edging and trucks and
mind warping coloured car forms running
through him and onward by the biscuit coloured
morning-sky-blocking bricked interiors. That big
box full of rooms where people would go and then
come and go to other interiors and cars and buses
all blinkered, at least three quarters blinkered,

15
conditioned and even blinded by the trap of
interior that has grown, being rooted in the
discovery of ironsteel, in old London town
stamped like an ink stamp cloning an odd
phenomenon over the natural awe here in
unviolated unsullied gondwanian raw. His spine
shivered and his feet never forgot that spot and
never listened to the woolen rugs in the govenor’s
office though he’d heard of tribal elsewheres
where his kind had supped with the like, only to
be painfully ruffled by the mutual spook in life.
The governor’s advisor never thought to heritage
list the Rock Hop sandspit as the umbilical of the

pretty city of hobart. That umbilical, stomped
across by deaf feet in bitumen soles hearing a
drummer who originally wants mostly to make a
more horrible interior to hold lots of London
people in prison, bound by that ironsteel that
shaped the axes saws and room boom. No these
people were not like that – they heritage listed the
city hall but; the city hall of course, they heritage
listed the city hall and thankyou. But no not the
Rock Hop nor kananyi’s little toe. Dam the little
redback spiders and pretty little native orchids
and sleek sunned blue tongues all in an
indigenous urban heart right there - an indigenous

17
urban heart … right there. There’re plenty more
elsewhere, for their wilderness was always just a
barrel roll away, and then another barrel roll, and
then a can’s throw - but now land and ocean are
drudge dry underpinned by that aforeto unheard
ironsteel. They brought on their beautiful boats all
this interior, the internalised (even on the wild
ocean) and too the horrible bacterial sully of sniffle
cough fever and die and their grotty fermented
fester of cholera, sewage and sullage. The
beginnings of the dirty armpitted city that enabled
the perfect flexing sturdy of a ballet floor, the
metal technical of saxophone, the huge glass

window, the sleek liquid display, dimmer switch,
little black box of music and the awesome high
end of peopled society and economy the alfresco
coffee.
The teller knows you may be conditioned and
blinkered. The Firsts of kananyi’s land scratch
their heads; certainly they know rudimentary
lintel frames of sticks and bark, fully naturally
earthy nurtured – complete with webs but only if
left too long. But this new sharply arrised, gabled
box sealed, light-painted interior, eight crisp three-
planed-corners at floor and ceiling awash with
novelty and sitting in rich natural context; squares,

19
prisms, right angles, doors, window rectangles
and a cupboard drawer holding a match-box -
something fallen to Earth. So many people, for so
many hours of so many days for so many years,
are subject to the quiet bombardment of so many
three-planed-corners. The corners counterplace
the circular belt of sky that blends with the
horizon below it and the dome of the heavens
above. That belt remains there, thank God.
Maybe it’s shrouded by depleted over-head forest
leaves and life, distant it mooches warmly present,
bombarding orgone glow, behind the flat white
ceiling, walls and that skewed corrugated roof of

unknowing. It is very significant: increasingly
many people, for so very many hours of so many
days for so many years, are subject to the quiet
bombardment of so many three-planed-corners.
The roombooming corners rather counterplace the
powerfully sweeping belt of sky that blends with
the horizon below and the awesome dome of the
fabled heavens above. That belt remains there,
thank God. Depending on where you are it may
be shrouded by over-head bushland leaves and
life, distant it mooches warmly present,
bombarding orgone glow, behind the shade of the
flat white ceiling, walls and that skewed

21
corrugated roof of unknowing. The tight little
boxes were cracking like egg shells and surprised
lizards were too slow for the hawks. The interior
with the three-planed-corners moulds our
attention habits; into forms that differ to those
habits made from wholesome embrace of the
dome of the horizon. Closing the door may bring a
touch of adversity. We need the solid tactile
mooch of a hand-polished huon-pine bannister
spokeshaved tree limb flow through the windows
of the eight cornered white box interior but we
often have to drive many miles to properly find it
– and then we must return.

He never felt the governors carpet nor saw the
captain‘s cabin and never inkled an understanding
of the nuances of those antipodean vibrations. He
dreamed that night of a thick sandstone box
crowding two men; it was hovering and buffeted
clang and tear trickle in ocean cloud arcing across
the world and was supplied in the meanest of
ways by uniformly clad key jangling owners of
land and things. It bought death to his and
sprouted anew; an island urbia - from such a
distressing concerning gene pool comes a new era
Tasmanian who would starve before discovering

23
the bushland berries while realising to love what
they destroyed and to fight for truly just politics
void of blindness and greed. If we can believe in
primeval slime and a bolt of lightning, here we
have it again. If we don’t we are quickened by the
truth itself and culture on; discovering the
idiosyncrasies of natural peopled place - the very
same that the british bulldog, dutch, french and
who knows else came upon. More treasure now
missing than what they brought; if we count life,
local wisdom and the hindsight of valuing for a
city centre the soul of what was already here. An

authentic identity of place supplanted by a
synthetically propped exotic.
That place, where that ant ran where this First’s
footprints may be seen, by hyper sensitive
detective technology – that place could well do
with a small reminder more powerful than the
local cenotaph. One of those ever over-riding
cynics, swoop landing above that reminder,
grasping with one claw a blood red lamp-pole
arm, the temporal winner in the warped humour
of a tharking black crowbird, a capital M on the oil
patched white paper bag in its other claw,

25
watched atop an acrylic cultural colour banner, a
living latte at a table. It looked around for peace
enough, then both eyes and face into the bag to
beak one of the potatofries sneak-stolen from that
nearby innocent afflicted living latte. Afflicted;
with any of many social disease and new
environmental chemistries - greeds, cholesterols,
social, mental and sexual maladjustments,
tumours, blinkers, blindness, mind noise;
throwing off the balance needed for a humming
mental electric dynamic burgeoning beauty city
enjoying the happy acknowledgement of all of all
creatures in a wonderful wonderful world. In this

context our man with hearing feet in a small city
with foreign antennae is remembered via
culturally established funds - a life size huon pine
laser cut figure, feet on his homeground standing
thigh deep in a set bitumen river mid macquarie
and mid market place gazing north-east through
the misplaced grand chancellor hotel wondering
why. Why ever didn’t they design the hotel lobby
to value the kananyi water, the Rock Hop and the
little island - at least. Surely oh surely can be seen
even commercial value in this. The cultural
funders followed through with a big glazed arch
where the brook flow penetrates the macquarie

27
façade, interpreted water flow to an internal
natural water-featured expanse, muraled, written
and grown imagery through rocks to bitumen,
café and boutique dining and hotel bookings and
through the other side to the docks. The traffic can
just slow, just bloody-well slow down … to go
around the lasercut pine memory of a presence
there today. Let it slow and go around; ‘it’ the
traffic, the drivers and passengers ay. Give them a
chance to break the humdrum and breath the air
to realise how close they are to the little cove and
that local geographic pivot to which they no
longer drive by blind and traffic blinkered. Break

the traffic chain saw. Throw up four prominent
supportive markers one on each the far
campbell/macquarie corners, one behind him by
the old pub and one across macquarie there aside
the port buildings and the original bank still
exposed and treed because it lived down there.
This will mark a rectangle place for generations to
feel the soul of the meeting of two peoples, of land
meeting sea, of vast ocean powers, of bio-
geomorphic nurture of their little growing city. It
will mark that under there is the Rock Hop far
more important to this local place than the sweet
old lady city hall; she will grow new use from this

29
memory. It will mark the buried brook once oar
navigable to wellington-court upstream and
down, a wet link to the wetter out there and the
silver flow back up the mountain. The pole
markers are high to be seen from franklin square
and central cove. They will caricature the
characters of their place – one pole huge felt hatted
for the ship’s captain, one woollied for our man,
the other two for water and land far and here. The
cultural kneejerk of the impassioned carried the
day to a healing hey hey, hey hey … ay.

Another created synthetic prop but this: to
authentic people and place at the heart of city
settlement in indigenous land; the same in cities
the world-over where the pompous have perched
and traded soul of place for trinkets or else. That
place where cities are born, flowering synthetic
constructions with places within, blooms to
become islands of types and servers for the lands
between, lands which indeed spread to the places
between the flowers – all looking to rosiness and
identity where the agonies dare not fly.

31

The
thaaaa
rrrrkke
d
Dolersaur
us .
FINISH

3

T h e f o l l o w i n g i s
s i m p l y t h e a u t h o r ’ s
g e n e r i c e l u c i d a t i o n s .
________________________________
_____________________
Abalone: popular rock shell
fish akin to Kiwi paua. Once
abundant in easy reach around
Homartian shores; where they
thrived with muscles, crayfish
and a particular cute little
starfish now being consumed to
extinction by the arrival of an
alien starfish. … as if the
slippery green rock coating
from industrial runoff wasn’t
enough. (when I was a boy
even a long time ago, I vowed
to clean up the river – this’s as
far as I’ve got.)
aboriginal: original people;
origin of the name ‘Aboriginal’.
Aboriginal: the native
people of the Australian
continent & its islands.
Blackfella; Harmoninni. Likely
floated over from India among
other. These original
‘Tasmanians’ copped from the
British the common cold and a
lot of shocking abuse,
disrespect and horror. Also
some would child-care for the
palefaces. King Billy I think from
the centre northwest is an
iconic name. It is beautiful that
contemporary culture is
adopting Aboriginal place &
topographic names – mount
Wellington/ kunanyi.
Corinnians: residents of
Corinna, north west Tasmania.
Cray: local Tasmanian rock
lobster also enjoyed in faraway
lands as is the abalone.

5
bastard scrub: term for
scrub that’s resistant to human
passage.
blue tongue lizard:
another Tasmanian icon
growing rarer.
Blundstone: local boot
maker of some pride to
Homartians.
buried brook: we bury the
drawcard of our settlement and
its urbane link – mountain top to
cove.
cabled impost: people with
assorted large twigs in their
eyes want to build a cable car
in the wrong place. If it does
politically go, as did the Iraq
war, it should be conditional
that it begin from the roof of the
City Hall – that way the built
heritage lobby could stop it
whereas the natural heritage
lobby carries nowhere near the
cred. Obviously natural heritage
carries no ego and only comes
from God. Following cable to
the Pinnacle (Mt Wellington)
comes a resort in Thark.
Carlton bluff: an hour east
of Hobart; a beautiful bonded
bookend to ParkCarlton Beach
land-granted to the army and
handballed to someone else,
barely productive land, zoned to
be given a patchworked skin
rash jewelled with window
squares, tinsheds, headlights
amid rectangle fences &
lawnmowings to drop of leprosy
from the soul of the beach.
convict camp: the first
tents here were set-up:
executive on the rise at the end
of Elizabeth & the convicts
down in mid mall. Good
surveillance from the executive
area over the convicts on one
side & the water highway on the
other.
Dolerite: the stone of the
gondwanian pre kunanyi
geomorphic thing west of
Hobart – challenged by the
dollar, right?

Dollar -right: dolerite
under shaded and captured by
money.
Dolersaurus: dollarsaurus,
rhetorical creature with dolerite
as flesh often seen resting
quietly like an old gray elephant
trunk tucked under crouched
blocking the fierce westerlies
from the little settlement by the
Derwent.
Dunaliens: residents of
Dunalley, south east Tasmania.
fighting foul
excrement: the ‘buried
brook’, the local rivulet, like
most if not all in global
settlement, was used as a
sewer and the locals copped
cholera. … drew drinking
water, falling ill not knowing
why.
geomorphic: land/water
form, characteristics,
developments & change. May
also be assumed to relate
biomorphic; the same in flora &
fauna
Gondwana: in my mind is
an ancient land lush with all and
awesome creatures and plants
unadulterated by people yet the
perfect place to live.
Indigenuity:
indigenousness
juxtoed :juxtaposed.
King Billy: Aborigine;
member of these island’s
aboriginals, known as the
Aborigines of the continent that
now supports Australia. Circa
1835-1869, last surviving male
of the Oyster Cove clan,
Following his death his body
was dismembered and used for
scientific purposes.
ley lines: The concept of
"ley lines" originates with Alfred
Watkins who also drew on
earlier ideas that alignments
might be oriented to sunrise
and sunset at solstices. In
1921he had been driving along

7
a road near a village. Attracted
by the nearby archaeological
investigation of a Roman camp,
he stopped to compare the
landscape with features on his
map. He saw, "like a chain of
fairy lights" a series of straight
alignments of various ancient
features - standing stones,
wayside crosses, causeways,
hill forts, and ancient churches
on mounds. Checking this
potential discovery from higher
ground he noticed many of the
paths seemed to connect one
hilltop to hilltop in a straight line.
He coined the term "ley" partly
because the lines passed
through places with ley in the
name. He believed this was the
ancient name for the trackways,
preserved in the modern
names. The ancient surveyors
who supposedly made the lines
were given the name "dodmen".
He believed, in ancient times
when Britain was more
densely forested, the country
was criss-crossed by a network
of straight-line travel routes,
with prominent features of the
landscape being used
as navigation points.
lorikeets: brilliant green
small parrots always plural but
never crowded.
Melaleuca: A small
settlement at the far southern
coast – nothing much but wild
bushland, plains and fresh air
between it and Hobart.
McDono-cable: Never did
want those hamburgers here to
stifle the corner burger shop
with big juicy homemade local
grown economy healthy and
hearty locale.
Nibaluna: this may be
something like the Palawan-I
think- (local people) name for
the stretch of water about the
Homartian docks – maybe it’s
mountain waters.
Orgone … putative energy
… assumed universal life force
… anti-entropic principle,
creative substratum in nature…
massless, omnipresent
substance, … luminiferous

aether … living energy more so
than inert matter … coalesce
across microscopic to
macroscopic , organisms,
clouds, galaxies…. held bodily
orgone deficit root of many
diseases…
Prahna: I think of this as
blowing with the air pollinating
as we breath it; the sum total of
all energy that is manifest in the
universe & the specialty of
locale.
Seven Mile Hill: similar
Carlton bluff of Hobart a virtual
wilderness beach about to be
degenitalled – what a waste of
such a treasure so close to the
capital city – what a gain to
those who join the fait
accomplish and build the
glassed loungerooms.
Snug bluff : similar Seven
Mile Hill but 20minutes south
and of a different intimacy and
value.
Regnans : Eucalyptus
regnans, known also as
mountain ash, Victorian
ash, swamp gum, Tasmanian
oak or stringy gum known to
attain heights over 114 metres
one of the tallest in the world
and the tallest flowering plant.
Street Canyon: a place
where kiddies are lost; full of
trouser cuffs, hubcaps, exhaust
pipes, stockinged legs, pole
bases, steps, trampled floors,
pavement and with walled sides
higher than the sky; where
children are easily totally
blinkered away from natures,
the simple natural joys lost to
our constructions but
sometimes plainly present to
their parents who may be
blissfully ignorant of their plight
and drown away their
objections with an icecream.
Testeronious
connector: well is kinda like
fouling the purity of the total
universal wonder by putting

9

your youness connection in a
wrong place.
Tharkian: having qualities
like The Thark, an area barely
trodden west of the kunanyi
Mount Wellington pinnacle.
Tiger snake: common local
poisonous snake.
Whales: there were 1000s of
them in the Derwent and the
estuary, 1000s teeming with
black whales up to sixty feet
long with young alongside in
winter to calve. Smaller
varieties too and porpoises.
Zzzzzzz: sorry if I put you to
sleep.
Z i p p i t y d o d a h
z i p p e r t y a a y …
m y o h m y w h a t
a w o n d e r f u l d a y
… … . .
I t ’ s t h e t r u t h …

It was actual …
e v e r y t h i n g
w a s
s a t I s f a c t u a l

This is what it might have looked like
from Criterion Street looking by the
future Town Hall site to where the
buried brook met the Derwent …
possibly should have been a few
Regnans painted in.

This is what it might have looked like
from Hunter Island before it was
named such looking through the future
Customs House … certainly should
have been numerous tall Regnans
painted in.
Picture courtesy of Anaya who at 5 y/o offered me
40cents for this picture while the paint was wet.

This is how it might have appeared
looking to that island from where the
Lord mayor now sits. It shows albeit
crudely the rocky connection to shore
which underpinned the causeway they
built … to become the umbilical and
indeed the source of Macquarie Street.
.

Stand yourself at the top of Kelly’s Step
and cast your mind back to one ripper
dawn blazing light onto that hunter
Island and lifting the shallows that lie
towards the Parliament gardens.
Sunlight courtesy of …

Rosellas (not correctly coloured) like
Lorikeets sweeping in mutual embrace
with the leaves and limbs and wind.
These were actually eastward at Wattle
Hill but the scene is pretty much the
same.

Should be Regnans in this too, but then
Kananyi likely wouldn’t be visible; this
from down Wapping way from the
street in behind the Roberts building
looking to Wellington bridge at
Elizabeth Mall. Don’t know how the
old tyre got there, no rubber in those
days.

This is what it might have looked like
from Stowell lookinh over the
Salamanca warehouses to the Domain;
there is a wedgetailed eagle just flew
out of the picture. The cappacino sits at
Elizabeth Wharf..

Homartian
for
y o u r L i b r a r y ,
F r i e n d , V i s i t o r , D e s i g n e r , T e a c h e r ,
D e v e l o p e r , P o l i t i c i a n , C h i l d , C o m p a n i o n ;
a s a H o u s e W a r m e r o r t o R e t a i l .
Go to
Bookshops
Hobart Bookshop
bookstore.bookpod.com.au
deboxdebox@gmail.com
facebook.com/HouseFandango
facebook.com/Homartian

For very welcome feedback direct to author,
enquiry, comment or purchase:
M John Latham, Manager
Debox Publications
16 Sanfrancisco St, Sorell, Tasmania, Australia 7172
deboxdebox@gmail.com
facebook.com/Homartian
facebook.com/HouseFandango
Search: debox Tasmania, debox degrid, Monte John Latham, HouseFandango,
Homartian, House Essence

ADDITIONAL BOOKS by Monte John Latham
 Housefandango
“HouseFandango” is a phenomenon – the product of an
exuberant creativity, a mind ever restless, fluid, alert to
manifold possibility, uncontained. Such an intelligence
might change the world. We need to listen to Monte John
Latham, then. His is a wisdom that roams wide and free,
at the same time as it focuses down upon the most urgent
question of our age: how should we live, how should we
dwell, how should we be? Here is the dance of people and
place – a veritable house fandango, and its dancemaster
steps us forth from the very earth, its magic, the bedrock
on which civilisation rests, to the place-nurturing, self-
nurturing, self-constructing activity that is nothing less
than making a home on earth. Come with Monte John –
dance his dance of life-affirming love.
Pete Hay, POET, ESSAYIST AND PHILOSOPHER OF PLACE,
( 2013 TASMANIA BOOK PRIZE - PEOPLE'S CHOICE)
 Wow Hows the House Now (out of print). Old title of
HouseFandango.
 House Essence (ebook). An essence of HouseFandango.
 There Are (ebook) . A short few words: identity, people, place.
Coming up
 The Architecture of Fire
 Spirit in the Sky
 The Shallows Where We Fizz.
 Nomurbic Office



