What the Council Left Behind

Media filmed on 1 July 2025 between 16:32 -16:54.

This data using autoethnographic creative research methodology records my first walk of a section where Nillumbik council had just removed Indigenous revegetation planting that I had undertaken and cared for in the nature strip outside my farm. The removal was justified as a "breach of the general local law" and followed a dispute over almost a year.

The recording functions as primary research data and as a form of experience led storytelling in itself.

The piece, entitled What the council left behind, functionally explores how one can show or document what has already been lost and is no longer present. The piece also explores the ethics of the removal, highlighting what was "left behind", or retained in the landscape including weed plants, broken glass, and major new drainage earthworks.

The media relates to other pieces on my Figshare repository including 'Biodiversity Strategies', https://figshare.unimelb.edu.au/articles/media/Biodiversity_Strategies/28232948 [media format] OR https://figshare.unimelb.edu.au/articles/presentation/Biodiversity_Strategies_powerpoint_presentation/28233002 [editable powerpoint format]; and Nature Strip Gardening Guidelines for Nillumbik https://figshare.unimelb.edu.au/articles/media/Nature_Strip_Gardening_Guidelines_for_Nillumbik/29452961

The filming was undertaken on a Motorola G55 Smartphone with pause button used to move between sites (only in a south to north direction). Four separate files were joined sequentially in Premiere Pro, with no other film editing undertaken. A transcribed audio caption was added to the file on 2 July 2025.