Rivendell at Grassy Creek ... A Shared Trust
P. Mark O'Loughlin cfc
[March, 2000]
Long before the Dreamtime and any human presence in this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit, a watercourse began carving a valley at the eastern end of an uplifted body of Cretaceous sediments which outcrop between the beginning of what we name today The Great Ocean Road and Cape Otway. Very recently in the 120 million year history of the shaping and clothing and inhabiting of these outcrops the Dreaming emerged, as Creation found a consciousness with which to reflect upon itself and experience awe and beauty and transcendence. And out of the Dreamtime came the Katabanut People who were graced with the custodianship of this land, and the middens at the mouth of this watercourse invite us today to know of this people and that custodianship. As do the King Parrots who confidently meet us in this valley, and whose ancestors were the totem of the guardians. Then this Land of the Holy Spirit experienced a human invasion which had no knowledge of custodianship, and had rare respect for an ancient harmony. And swept in with this recent tide were Christian Brothers who were to find their way to this tranquil and largely unspoiled valley to seek re-creation for the young persons they cared for and themselves. They remembered a mother and a Christian story, and called this haven Santa Monica. Recently a Community which named itself Rivendell made this valley its home, and incarnated its Tolkein-conceived spirit of welcoming hearth and sharing of story and entering into sabbath.Today the Otway Ranges call us to re-enter the Dreaming, and we lament the despoiling. That formative and life-creating watercourse and its valley invite us to encounter the subtle beauty of the diminishing remnants of an harmonious fauna and flora, and we know the watercourse as Grassy Creek. We Christian Brothers, in partnership with the Rivendell Community, exercise custodianship of this valley. And this custodianship is surely in trust for the Katabanut People of the Otways, and particularly for the local Yan Yan Gurt Clan. At the instigation of Government Surveyor George Douglas Smythe in the early 1840's, one of the four sister clans of the Yan Yan Gurt was massacred in its forest home.
The fossil-rich sedimentary rocks at this eastern end of the Otways carry evidence of ancient rainforests, and today the upper ridges and slopes have towering Mountain Ash remnants amongst the dry sclerophyllous Ironbark and Messmate and Tasmanian Blue Gum. Ringtail and Bushy Tail Possums inhabit this forest, and Yellow Belly Gliders and tiny Sugar Gliders sail through its eucalypt canopy. Below the waterfalls in the upper valley nestle pristine groves of rainforest with five metre tall Tree Ferns. In the lower valley eels and fish and a myriad of water insects live with the waters of Grassy Creek. The valley is home to King Parrots, White and Black Cockatoos, Gang Gangs with their fine yellow and pink flecked plumage, a resident Magpie family which raises its young here, Wrens, Honeyeaters, Finches, Fantails, and recently arrived Kookaburras. Poteroos and Echidnas and Reptiles live secretively on the forest floor. A cave near the mouth of Grassy Creek is possibly 200 thousand years old, and witnessed the rituals of Katabanut People once as it witnesses those of visitors today. At the mouth of Grassy Creek a rocky coast is home to more ancient life. Sea Stars and Sea Urchins which inhabit the rock pools here have ancestors which have changed little since they emerged 500 million years ago in the Silurian and Ordovician Periods of the early Palaeozoic Era. Perhaps they are indifferent to our presence, but in spite of their awesome history of living continuity our human practices are now crucial to their fate. Ancient life, and ancient harmony, continue in the valley and at the mouth of Grassy Creek, but not without threat.
Today, whether by invitation or through a gracious Providence, the weary and the bewildered and the broken and the disenchanted and the disconnected from our human wave find their way to Grassy Creek and encounter an ancient harmony and a Rivendell spirit. There is healing and re-creation and re-connection and renewal of hope and spirit. As a Christian Brother I have a deep sense of pride and gratitude that we Christian Brothers are engaged in a partnership with the Rivendell Community whereby, in trust, the ancient custodianship of an extinguished Katabanut People and its Yan Yan Gurt Clan is honoured and perpetuated. It is my hope that we will continue to cherish the privilege of this sacred trust, and ensure that an ancient harmony is respected and protected so that it may continue to heal and nurture parched spirits in generations to come.
Related sections