I was thinking yesterday, again, what a strange ‘natural’ environment we have created. This was at the Red Hill lookout where there is an interesting interpretive sign. The sign itself is entitled ‘Grasslands’, and is beautifully designed. It has information about the Golden Sun Moth, the Grassland Earless Dragon, and the Striped Legless Lizard. I took two photographs, one of the displayed 1927 view and one of the scene as it is now, over autumn-tinged south Canberra, where garden bird sites nestle beneath the exotic canopy. The second photo gives the same angle of view. A main purpose of the sign is evidently to draw attention to the Majura Valley, which appears as a distant sliver in both photos, the unlikely site of a threatened future airport to serve the Sydney-bound traveller. The sign adds the information: “The word ‘Majura’ is believed to come from a place in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Merchant Robert Campbell, who purchased the land, was active in the Australian-Indian trade.” Well, I didn’t know that. Another one of those words from Asia, along with bandicoot and cockatoo.
