The year is 10,000 B.P., the place Northern Europe. The ice sheets have rolled back and the land is again green. One of our distant ancestors, a cave man by the name of Ug McUg walks forth from his cave in the early morning light and ponders the day ahead of him. He notes with his still rudimentary thought processes that the grass surrounding the cave entrance is long. For the first time in history a curious thought enters his mind – “the grass out there is getting a bit too long, there could be wild beasts hiding in it? I know I’ll cut it!” He fashions a rustic scythe from a branch and makes the worlds first lawn, and so begins the fall of man!
One of the greatest causes of the ecological disruption Eurpoeans have wrought in Australia is our obsession with a so-called neat and tidy environment. Our local ecosystems are complex and diverse and can start to fall apart at the seams when we tidy(?) them up.
Vast swathes of lawn may look attractive and appeal to certain needs, deep within our psyche, but not only are they a massive drain on the resources of the planet, they are sterile deserts when it comes to species diversity. Unlike Ug however we have no survival excuse for maintaining these ordered grassy deserts. We wiped out all the other creatures at the top of the food chain and don’t have to fear lions or giant bears sneaking out of the undergrowth. Our only excuse for the vast lawns and well ordered garden beds is that we are so wealthy (in real terms) that we can alter vast areas of land that would otherwise be home to complex self-maintaining ecosystems purely out of indulgence and not for survival or production of economic wealth.
Before I jump down of the soapbox (or get knocked off!) I’d just like to add that the usual characters that are blamed for threatening our local ecosystems such as the woody weeds (Privet, Lantana and Camphor laurel) are largely innocent. In fact they often have very little impact on overall ecological processes compared to the grass lands we indulge ourselves with for lawn or even dare I say it horse paddocks. The woody weeds may even have many positive effects on the local ecology, especially if they are spread by local wildlife.
Now before the Motor Mower Retailers of Australia Association take out a contract on me and try and put me six foot under the lawn. Or the local pony club decide to play an old fashioned game of polo with my head – I’d just like to add that I too have some lawn (although I do consider it to be a mere holding pattern until time and resources allow for it to be turned into something more useful, like native grassland, native forest or horticulture).
Seriously now, small grasslands can be very useful for recreation and amenity values but do we really need as much as some acreage blocks maintain. Instead of scattered clumps of trees amongst our vast artificial grass lands I’d prefer to see scattered grassy clearings amongst ecologically diverse and complex forestlands.
Out at the Bunya Mountains National Park grassy knolls are found within the forest and were previously maintained by the First Nations fire stick farming practices. These grasslands are welcome sources of food for the local herbivores – but they also need the forest for food, shelter and water. It’s a matter of balance. Perhaps our own Bald Knob that we see at the front of the range was so named because it was a small patch of grassland amongst the dark forests of the Blackall range.
Now we’ve all been good little revegetators for the last few years and busily planting trees. The next thing we must learn to do is how to regenerate the understorey of our forests and even rehabilitate our native grass lands. See I’m not anti –grass, well actually you could even say I’m pro-grass, but that’s another story !! There are a whole swathe of fantastic native grasses and herbs we can encourage or plant. Suprisingly some grasses grow in or on the edges of our native forest such as Oplismenus aemulus, the Creeping Beard Grass or Ottochloa gracillima. These grasses can even be mown to create shade-loving lawns (see I can even use the L-A-W-N word in a positive sense).
So next time your strolling across your vast lawn ask yourself – do you really need all that grass? And next time your walking through or along the edge of you local forest don’t forget to appreciate all those wonderful small native plants at your feet . Choose natural diversity and dont make monotony with monocots (botany joke!)
Some fantastic native groundcover:
Pollia crispata – Pollia
Viola hederaceae – Native Violet
Oplismenus aemulus – Creeping Beard Grass
Ottochloa gracillima – Ottochloa
Lobelia trigonocaulis – Rainforest Lobelia
Carex polyantha – Rainforest Carex
Hydrocotyle pedicellosa – Money-wort
And a whole range of ferns of course!
by Spencer Shaw
