Dreamtime-Trek and Paths to Pollution

Along the banks of Duck Pond, you might find some small mosaic artworks titled ‘Dreamtime-Trek’ and ‘Paths to Pollution’.

The ‘Dreamtime-Trek’ series depict Indigenous Australians living and hunting among the wetlands that existed here prior to European colonization. Animals including wallabies, lizards, turtles, eels, small marsupials and waterbirds are seen in and around the water’s edge. An image shows eels and fish being trapped for food. Eggs from waterbirds are also being collected.

The ‘Paths to Pollution’ series tell a less inspiring story, of how in less than a generation, European settlers had polluted these water sources. In 1850, George Brown was convicted of depositing 200 tons of nightsoil (human excreta) close to the head of Busby’s Bore.

The interpretive mosaic images show dogs and people pooing, fish dying, pipes carrying pollution, factories billowing smoke, motor cars spewing exhaust, wastewater, and accumulated societal waste.