The Smell of Wetlands

When I rolled out the paper scroll in a small hidden corner of the mudflats of the extensive 30-square-kilometre Swan Bay area, a marine embayment and islands with interconnected ecosystems, it came to mind that wetlands, swamps and saltmarshes contain the layers of history of place – the blueprint of thousands of years, maybe millions of years in the making. I felt a deep connection to the patterns of the ecosystems, biotic and abiotic forms, evolutionary growth visible in the smells, sounds and visual beauty of colours and living structures in mud, microorganisms, plants, insects and birds. ​