Fichas

A perception of scale was commonly described by participants, and with it came the potential for cliché; this is the obvious conventional response. However, to say that one feels small in a landscape of such immense size may be the obvious response, but it should not be ignored on this account. Rather, there is a need to reflect on what might lie beneath such a response to the landscape for the potential part it might play in facilitating meaningful experiences. Certainly the perception of scale was for many participants both an unexpected and undeniable element of the river journey.

The physical and spatial scale of the landscape was available to participants in many ways as they journeyed down the river. The sheer size of the valleys and ravines, the size of the boulders in the rapids tossed about by the river, and the unpredictability of the elements all contributed to a physical sense of scale. The very imminence of the river landscape was a reminder of one’s physical smallness. As Newton recalls:

It is not easy, in this age, to feel small in the landscape. It is a feeling that often comes at the top of a mountain, on a vast plain or desert when an ever- expanding horizon can be seen in all directions. On the Franklin it is the opposite. The view is bordered by cliffs and pungent rainforest. The feeling is that of being swallowed by the land. You cannot see the weather coming and the only way out is to keep travelling downstream (2007, p. 41).

The Ravine was a particular place on the river where the physical scale of the landscape was made apparent. Several participants have a clear recollection of drifting into the Ravine, above the Churn, and seeing the other raft being dwarfed in such a dramatic landscape.

“I found the Great Ravine, on entering it, pretty fantastic. Just the scale. And one thing I enjoyed was just kind of – when you’ve got, you know, another raft in front of us and just sort of off, you know, maybe 50 metres in front of us or something, just that scale of just kind of this little yellow boat alone in this huge gorge and the scale is just crazy. So I enjoyed that.” (Jessie WE3)

"Ah, again in reference to, the natural environment that we are in, I felt that a lot [diminishment] when we were, coming through particularly the Great Ravine where we saw these boulders teetering you know, on other boulders, and just how, how small you feel, ah, physically compared to that." (Beth PT1)

“I mean, I think scale is one thing, like the scale of the mountains and when you start to drop down into the lower parts, going through the Great Ravine, and that was incredible, like that’s a real scale thing where you are reduced to something quite small... It’s a bit, it’s a strange experience. It’s other-ly, it’s other worldly from here to be, yeah... I don't know, I think it’s... I find it really exciting to just be so removed from what is your normal environment and be where we have such control over our domain I suppose, yeah, to be put into a place like that where you can’t, intellectually it’s a step behind, you’ve got a whole kind of sensory experience.” (Vickie PT1)

While the physical elements of the river in themselves invoked a sense of scale, profound feelings of scale were often related to an indefinable ‘something larger’ that the elements within the landscape hinted at.

“Yea, and that def… I guess, those places had the most impact. Where it couldn’t be easily defined, Irenabyss, the Great Ravine, places where it’s just… awe, I keep using this word awe, but it, it’s a sense of kind of gasping ‘Fuck’. I think I even said fuck a few times, just like… it’s bigger than us and older and… yeah, spiritual.” (Morris PT1)

“Things are very... nature does things quite easily. Like I know it can be powerful and wild and, but the closer I look at nature, it doesn’t make a big effort. You know even moving a big rock is kind of effortless. I don’t know if that makes any sense… Well, that valley was formed by drops of water just over a hell of a long time. So it’s created something, huge, yeah phenomenal, but, it’s not like, it’s not like ‘quick we’ve gotta break this rock wall to…’ It just does its thing (laughs). It’s kind of laid back.”(Morris PT1)

Participant recollections, however, of a physical sense of scale were surprisingly outnumbered by recollections of a temporal sense of scale.The Franklin River revealed a timescale for participants that was both daunting and comforting, and occurred for participants in many ways as they journeyed down the river. From the relatively recent history of European explorers, the ancient forests, an indigenous history stretching back some 35,000 years, and an almost incomprehensible

geological timeframe of more than a billion years, the river evoked reflections upon temporality. While the geological history is unimaginable in human terms, for many of the participants the more recent history of indigenous and European existence was also difficult to comprehend.

“But you know, walking, walking in that rainforest yesterday, seeing those giant myrtles. I thought, I just thought these trees have been here for longer than I have been around. But that's, that's what large trees do for me. I'm just awed by their size and how long they've been around. Yeah, so you do, you do feel somewhat

insignificant, but I think, I think that should be a natural reaction." (Graeme WE2) "I did a lot of wondering, a lot of wondering about, the passage of time, you know, I've talked about time and how there was no compression of it and constraint of it and the timelessness of it. But then, I've got this one particular rock I remember sitting at, um, big fall beach on our last night… so when I was sitting on this beach, particularly thinking about these rocks, I guess I was wondering about all that had come before it, you know, the river had been so serene for us, but I know that it's been completely tumultuous at other times, so it was wondering about both. What natural things had passed before, as well as what, um, man had passed before 'cause I was reading books about the guys who used to go up in the old punts... Just with a bit of interest as to, you know, who's trodden here before us, who's been here, and really, also, also being a little bit limited in how far I can try and come back by, in, how old these things are, you know. 'Cause we are such a young nation that, nature's way older than we know it." (Beth, PT1)

"It, it kind of, again, just reminds me of, that we are all just little individuals who have a short stay on earth and, you know, that cave was here twenty thousand years ago, and I'm gonna be here for a hundred. And, it does kind of make you think about what, while you're here, what impact or lack of impact, or what you want to do while you're here. It certainly, it certainly does that, for me." (Diane WE3)

“It also reminded me of how transient we all are. Those cliffs and rocks will be there for many years after I am gone.” (Diane WE3 12 month reply)

Scale seems to be made apparent both as a realisation that there is something larger and indescribable, and that we are in that something larger. For example, it is not just about recognising any apparent time-scale, there is also the recognition that we are part of that time-scale; that we are enfolded in that something larger. It is not only about the scale of the place in terms of it being bigger and older, but also the fact that you are placed within that larger something, inside the landscape, inside a larger time-frame, inside time. This could be both terrifying and comforting, but also inherently challenging. As Hay reflects:

The river holds all of time within its flow. I’d once thought Europe old – that I lived in a young place, one lacking any thread to a deep, unfolding past. All its history ahead of it. I’d thought this until I came to the Franklin, until the ancient Gondwana forests reached over me, gathered me into time itself, and

my life changed, my scale of things, and my understanding of what is right and what is wrong (2008, n.p.).

Interviewer: “What do you feel? Like, what does it make you – what do you get from seeing that [scale in the landscape]?”

“I think one thing I find – I mean, the scale in a sense, I guess the size, the time, you feel how sort of temporary you are I guess, in a way, and how old the place is. And I found it interesting, the idea – and sort of scary in a way, I guess, this idea, this idea that, you know, you’ve sort of got these massive waterfalls that have been – you think how long they’ve been flowing for and every day, even, you know, when I'm at home or at work or you’re not thinking about these things, that water’s still flowing. And that’s an amazing thought. The way, you know, every day that landscape has got its rhythms of, you know, the water flowing and tides and the rain and how – I mean, in some sense it’s kind of two things. You think, ‘Geez, that’s a huge thing and it’s been going for so long and I'm just so temporary to be here within it’, but at the same you kind of feel how it’s fragile, in a sense that, you know, our impact on it, and you hope it won’t stop it or change. I suppose that’s quite a strong feeling I had about it… I mean, I guess I have thoughts of, ‘Geez, I hope this is okay’, but largely I enjoy it and appreciate it.” (Jessie WE3)

The perception of the geological time-scale also occurred in many ways: the revealed strata in the valley walls, the smoothing and shaping of the rocks by the water over time, and the apparent tumbling of larger rocks to make smaller rocks as the river carried on downstream. While each of the perceptions was of a different appearance within the geology, there was a common theme: a time-scale beyond human

reckoning and a natural world that goes on regardless of humans being there.

“We went to a couple of waterfalls and up the lost world canyon and um, went to the, the, the aboriginal cave and stuff like that. And that was gnarly, like I, I mean these are little creeks that have just carved their way through solid rock to get to their output, to get to the river, to get out to the sea, they’ve just gone straight through this rock. It’s just, yeah, the interplay of those forces, I mean you know that over time water wears away rock. And then you just see that, that incredible time scale is all sitting there in front of you in evidence, in this chasm that goes through solid rock.” (Sarah PT1)

"I'm really taken by the changing rock structures, because, um, I'm thinking of how many hundreds of thousands or millions of years those changes have evolved in. And, I think it would be a shame for future generations not to be able to see that. To not be able to, ah, look at that part of nature and realise just how short a term we have here." (Charlie WE3)

“I think that my favourite campsite was the one where we were camped under the rock ledge, you know under the big rock, and, I think because it just makes you remember, sort of, you're just a very small speck in a very big organism that is the planet. You know you, kind of, things go on and you're just a very tiny little, little part of it, but you should be glad that you've had the opportunity to be part of it I suppose." (Diane WE3)

In terms of what appeared for participants geologically it is interesting to note that many of the perceptions are enhanced, or at least made more readily available, within a river environment. This is particularly so on a river such as the Franklin that has so dramatically cut through the ambient geology and played such a large part in forming the landscape. In such an environment engagements with geology are almost

unavoidable, especially when you travel, over several days, through the river’s inscriptions upon it.

“Just the cleanness, and ah, being remote and being out there. And um, but, ah, I also appreciated that, where, where, you know like it’s the head of the river, the big rocks and stuff like that and as you go down they get smaller and smaller, and end up as sand and, um, get swept into the harbour and maybe into the beaches and stuff like that, and then long term be, you know, squashed on the bottom of the sea and then one day raise up again, as you can see up on the side of the river that’s, they were once at the bottom of the river and being raised up sideways and, um, longways, and yeah, yeah, yeah, just got amazed with nature. The fact that we’ve been here for a millisecond where some of that dirt’s been evolving for years and years and years and years and years and years and years, and then, then so, um, just amazed by that.”(Lester WE1)