It seems that the memory of this extraordinary woman has faded in the 'cultural landscape' that is currently under threat. I refer to a part of it known to what seems to be a fading network as "The Holt" – one of her 'special places' .
It appears to be looking at nothing short of 'desecration'.For those who knew Winifred West and who had shared with her visions and imaginings for, and of, 'places', this place became invested with all manner of things.
The 'Upper Holt' was no longer just a piece of bush just off Range Road, it was a place to do things, indeed imagine things. It was an extension of the 'Lower Holt' a place set aside for musing in a way. I had the privilege of knowing Winifred West and sharing time musing on this or that, often over a cup of tea as somewhat Gandhi like she spun wool – the Mahatma spun cotton. This 'place' would crop up quite often and in various contexts.
Douglas Adams was yet to tell us about 'DEEP THOUGHT' and 42 but somehow in one's reminiscing and musings these conversations with Winifred and DEEP THOUGHT in cyberspace somehow meld.
Winifred West was an extraordinary educationalist and independent thinker – much of which she did out loud. I recall so very clearly an early piece of her advice. It went, "you just cannot create miracles however you can create the circumstances within which they might happen." For her, The Holt was one of those 'circumstances' where one could go and do things, imagine things, think things – and one imagines now, meditate.
If you were a Frensham girl in her time you would know about, and be able to reminisce about, this somewhat unique activity – 'Holting'. The stories talk about raking leaves and twigs, bonfires and cooking treats on those fires – but there was more to it than that.
While I do not recall how Winifred West acquired this place, that was well before my time but I do recall stories about that piece of 'useless bush' coming up for sale and Winifred imagining it as anything but 'useless'. She of course snapped it up and to the bemusement of many, she simply left it to be for the most part.
In her later years when 'brisk walks' were somewhat off the agenda she would take a very slow drive, as a passenger, through The Holt (Upper or Lower), at dog's walking pace, with 'Jolly' exercising somewhere slightly ahead, to round out the day. For others, it was a place to gather fallen branches for firewood. And Winifred herself would arrange for 'bush rock' to be collected for her gardening projects at Sturt. Whatever happened there 'touched the land lightly' long before the contemporary Australian architect Glenn Murchutt coined the phrase.
It is of course impossible to imagine what Winifred would think and say now in a 21st C context about what might happen in 'The Holt'. Nonetheless, she has left some of us with a 'cultural sensibility' that might help contextualise our responses to various dilemmas in front of us and ahead of us yet – climate change pandemics etc.
Indeed, 'glamping' in The Holt somehow seems antithetic to 'Holting'. And, the bureaucratic processes on steroids that seem to be redefining the 'placedness' there is so, so very concerning. That is so wherever it is invoked albeit that there are now newer environment concerns to take into account.
Given that increasingly we are discovering that we belong to place rather than them belonging to us, we need to look to our moral compasses and more carefully.
Also, we need to ponder the question about whether 'places' define culture or is it culture that defines place? In this instance, perhaps something else in 'this place' needs consideration or perhaps consideration might be given to the plans being realised elsewhere. It's a question that hangs in the air – and it will linger for some time.
Winifred West was a person of her time, yet somehow in her imaginings of 'placedness' I believe that she would have readily understood, acknowledged and celebrated the Gundungurra people's preexisting sovereignty and placedness.
“This is the place of places and and it is here.”
