The loss of good farming land to urban sprawl is the subject of this poem by Colin Williams.
The Salad Bowl with its blood-red soil is being replaced by urban sprawl between Thornlands and Victoria Point
The Salad Bowl
Bare feet dyed by blood-red soil
As in my father’s fields I’d toil
Planting seedlings, picking fruit
Pulling weeds out by the root.
This area was the “Salad Bowl”
Farming was our heart and soul
We idolised this crimson ground
A place where fruit and veg abound
This is the Redlands I recall
Before the days of urban sprawl
Now concrete seals our fertile land
Where strawberries grew, McMansions stand
Building approvals everywhere
A free-for-all without a care
The developers won’t be appeased
‘Til every inch of land is seized
You say “This is the future, don’t get in the way”
“That was then, this is today”
Call me a whinger, call me a whiner
Then sit down to your salad that was grown in China
Written by Colin Williams and published with his permission
18 February 2015
The Salad Bowl in Redlands art
A mural depicting the Redlands when it was the Salad Bowl can be seen at the Redlands Museum in the Dan Holzapfel Farm Pavilion
Other poems published by Redlands2030 include:
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This is a tragedy unfolding before our eyes. If we keep forcing our farmers onto less and less arable land, the time will quickly come when they cannot grow enough food to support the population. The end result is that we have to import all our fresh produce instead of growing it ourselves. The recent Hepatitis A outbreak is a poignant reminder of the consequences of this policy. So much for Australia being the foodbowl of Asia.
beautifully written, true and tragic. Having married an Australian and recently moved here even I have noticed the difference in such a short time. I would have loved to experience what this writer did. Alas, no more and how short sighted to think that people who want to buy into ‘the lifestyle’ are the very ones destroying it. If I as a relative newcomer can see this, why cannot the Council who grants this destruction also see it?
An agronomist I volunteered with mentioned that our rich, fertile, red volcanic, soils are in some instances 30 feet thick which would help feed Brisbane for centuries. Not covered in concrete! Great planning, council!
so true –
We need to support the last few remaining farms in our community as they will become ever more import for food security especially in light of the recent contamination scare on imported food products reaching our shores.
Loved the poem! How true and how sad it is that our beloved Redlands is turning out the way it is. I long for the days of the beautiful farmlands amongst our community.