Kelly, Noelene J (2013) Shoulder to the wind : a lyrical evocation of the Bogong High Plains. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis comes in two parts. In the first instance it is a journey into the space and light, the wetlands and the wildflowers, the rocks and creatures and winds of the high plateau region of Australia’s south-east corner. Within this elongated spine of high country rise the Bogong High Plains, a series of peaks and sub-alpine grasslands bordered by forests of snow gum and alpine ash. These High Plains are the subject of this thesis. What you will find here is creative in form. It is composed of a series of personal and place-based essays in the nature writing tradition. While these lyrical essays arise from my own extensive engagement with the High Plains, they attempt an ecological perspective; they endeavour to write the High Plains over time and from multiple viewpoints, including those of Aboriginal custodians and geological scientists, cattlemen and ecologists, as well as my own phenomenal experience. Mostly, they are a response—protective, celebratory, artful, tinctured at times with grief and loss and, perhaps more frequently, with amazement—to a rare and increasingly threatened place. These creative essays are accompanied by an exegetical reflection that contextualises the creative work and examines a range of issues and discourses which either arose from or impinged upon the work as it took shape.

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