ARTWORK: Jasmin Small walk on floors of sand and shit hair a-wave oil slick seaweed sewn to our heads Ahead a black depth
Golf also has a myriad of other problems –
nightmares and children’s fears and exclusivity. besides the infamous elitism writhing in its edge Golf courses take massive amounts of water to He turns to–me maintain courses are on average 150 acres, so proud and at the average frequency of being watered a
Ba-bum. Ba-bum.” When the shower runs dry and I unfold a skinny skeleton of pale paper stretching over paddle-pop bones
Georgian architecture being heavily reflected in
He circles away downbuildings the draintoday, and of course most government ever laughing rabbits that later decimated the local ecosystems.
Golf courses could be the same – a small little
percent of all the water used in the US each year.
his smile stitched a fish’s head artificial island oftoEuropean scenery that reminds I people drownedof a home that once was. he didn’t.Who can understand the irony of a sport He couldn’t that creates large green spaces with a negative Ienvironmental chose to. footprint? How can we improve My heart now lies golf?
that much isn’t even necessary to have a playable
in the embrace of some The good news is that golf is in fact
few times a week, even more so in arid climates
so cocky in Australia, where water consumption common
could be up to six times more. A US geological
his skin isestimated scale survey that golf courses use 0.5
his fish Asfingers Moeller wrote in 2013, watering a gold course his eyes are wrapped in seaweed course, it’s pearls only done to maintain the lush green
colour which people think makes the course more drifting forth from lidless lips aesthetically appealing, not affecting the game and hisway. teethPesticides are also used which seep in any into the local water table harming local wildlife are charms of bone finding their way into your (and also eventually with Her name on each household taps). Compounded with the amount “How fare your breath? of land courses use – water use becomes an even so far below? bigger problem. It is estimated that there are around 32,000 golf courses around the world – isestimated this any place to be covering a land area the size of Belgium. for a man such as you?” He standsWhy there do golf courses in Australia neglect grotesque to plant native trees? The answer to this could lie in Australia’s colonial past. European attitudes to inAustralia’s his naturenatural environment have always been less than positive. As Robert Hughes wrote in The For it’s Shore, all he’llabe Fatal famous book about the history of the first years of colonial settlement, when the can firstbe convicts looked upon the land they described He stagnates as stands a “thinand scraggly landscape,” “monotonousskin peeling looking at first sight,” with Eucalyptus trees as “very strange, with smooth wrinkling joints like flesh floating armpits, elbows, or crotches.” They didn’t have leaving nothingthings to say. Hughes further wrote many positive that comparing the landscape with an English just the seaborne scarecrow of Fleet a mandiarists. “Partly, park was common with First aitperson came from their habit of resorting to familiar European stereotypes to deal with the unfamiliar behind appearance of things Australian; thus it took at I least fall, unbidden, into for thatcolonial black depth. two decades watercolourists to Iget cannot breathe. the gum trees right, so they did not look like English oaks or elms.” Cannot see. Cannot hear. When confronted with strange new places it is normal to cling to what is familiar as Nothing butyou the of pounding of a boat to above it reminds home. Migrants new lands its engine thrumming to thatand familiar tune and bring along food, culture, customs, “Ba-bum. the first European colonisers were no different, Ba-bum. bringing their architecture, food, animals, trees, and way of life. These features were reflected in the early colonies – lots and lots of sheep,
very easy to make sustainable, but you have
sea-borne abyss to convince the consumer to change their My head now follows perspective. And that, is no easy task. As long
as people want their artificial “nature-themed
gingerly stepping intoascold ocean tides puts it, we amusement parks” Abbie Richards
will never have change.
to walk those drowning steps
We need to start living with the land,
and before the courses scarecrow indecision notstand against it. Golf areofvery expensive
to maintain – costing more than a million a year
the of choice on brink average. Planting flora native to the local For environment will save costs, as less water and
maintenance will be required, and especially
when heart beats pesticides. Instead of imposing European nature
on bushland, we could also consult the people
itwho is true have been living in harmony with the land
for thousands of years: the diverse range of First
like fish swimming you farming has already Nations peoples.across Fire-stick And proven to be an effective way to control the land,
and their expertise could not only help create
when thinks courses but also more jobs morehead harmonious
and employment. Cheaper maintenance costs
itcan is true also be passed down to the consumer in
membership fees. This could potentially help
like stepping from a shower alleviate golf’s current image as an unaffordable,
elitist sport.
all wrapped in conviction But If you are looking to play golf more
sustainably, perhaps play at a course that is
when both part of theagree Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary
Program. Membership is based on factors such as
itenvironmental is Real initiatives, recycled water use, and
wildlife preservation among others. Alternatively,
no edge brink look fornor local courses that aren’t a long drive
away and have an environmental plan. There are
just an endless many courses sea around Australia that are doing
their part to become sustainable. Golf is currently
green and deep and beautifulhave to be. As CSIRO problematic, but it doesn’t
has stated, Australia’s native wildlife is in the
a“grip love of and water ofsalt an unprecedented alien attack,” and without cackle. much ofHis thebubbling country’s unique flora and fauna is
in danger of disappearing by 2050 unless urgent action is taken.
15.
