Anna Couani #231 Glebe Local

Glebe local

my place my home

the suburb of Glebe

part of Sydney 

a palimpsest of history 

ancient maritime paradise 

of wetlands teeming with new life

in the oyster economy

a nurturing incubator but 

degraded depopulated and polluted

with industrial waste 

by the invaders

surviving the only way they knew how 

badly stupidly

fouling their own nest

but it wasn’t home for the English

just a temporary sojourn

polluted so badly 

people near the wetlands and creeks 

were dying 

from proximity

the imaginative solution 

landfill!

and pump the poison into drains 

and out into the harbour

perfect

the harbour floor now permanently toxic

best not go there 

dispossession and pollution

a foundation for the future

dividing the suburb into north and south

Protestant and Catholic

the north a no-go area for working class Catholics

living in the Church lands run by the Anglicans

always full of contradictions

becoming diversity

a myriad small businesses

artisans and professionals side by side

there is no ‘we’ here 

not exactly Glebites but 

quintessentially Sydneyites

harbour dwellers

incubator 

home to many schools crèches and preschools

dormitory for 3 universities

60% rental

the shopping centre teeming with young people

from all over the world

artists musicians composers writers academics

all adjacent but not networked or organised 

is Glebe

place full of characters

a character in my narrative

Is this a love letter to a place

no a place is not a person

to love being here is not to love a single entity

it’s the multiplicity and 

the place is not contained within municipal boundaries

it spills out into Ultimo, Pyrmont, the Sydney CBD

and along the lines of the wetlands into Chippendale and Darlington

up into the hills of Sydney University

across Camperdown towards the hills of Annandale

and into the harbour that reaches everywhere

like a giant in a big frock with spreading skirt

but songlines have been lost, ploughed into landfill