Gretchen Miller | Homeground

Australian History A park for the People (Centennial Park)

Centennial Park, Sydney, is 220 hectares of rolling grasslands, paperbark forests and of course the Grand Drive, which encircles the park. But how many know that Grand Drive was intended to showcase the virtues of the rich for the lower classes to observe and emulate? This history of one of Sydney's most significant recreation areas explores the moral and physical drivers for its development. Built to memorialise the centenary of colonisation, it was intended to uplift the common man with its sweeping vistas and educative plantings. But aside from its ideological purpose, in its 120 years of existence it has also seen its fair share of community battles, plans for Olympics sites, and downright filching – of land, and flora. Guests: Dr Catherine Evans, senior lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Faculty of the Build Environment at UNSW, Dr Paul Ashton Associate professor of Public History at the University of Technology, Sydney, Dr Neil Runcie, Former Professor of Economics at UNSW, Keith Jordan, Former local and secretary of the Save the Parks Campaign,Jean Jordan, Former local resident whose family association with Centennial Park dates back to Federation in 1901, Dr Ian HoskinsNorth Sydney Council Historian.

Five miles in Tansy’s shoes

You never know what’s behind a closed door. What story you’ll find. And in this podcast, the story of an unusual life. Raised a Seventh Day Adventist Tansy Mayhew had to fight against religious upbringing to explore her passion and become a singer. The family home was full of love, but also violence - Tansy's mother had a hair trigger temper and plenty to get cross about, with a disabled son, three daughters, and a peripatetic life. Despite the restrictions of a religion strictly followed by her parents, Tansy moved away from home and upbringing to pursue a life of passion and art. And at the age of 30, with no formal musical education she became the singer she'd always dreamed of being.  And then - an unexpected surprise. Tansy's life took a right hand turn when she became a single mother of Chanté who was both profoundly disabled and a vibrant spirit. This is their story.
In memory of Chanté Wambu.

The Ariadne Project

When a long term relationship disintegrates, the former partners lose not just a lifelong friend, a home, or the kids. The sense of loss can erode your sense of identity and make your shared history too hard to bear. Grief packs a powerful punch. This program is the outcome of the Ariadne project—where you, the listener, contributed your short stories and anecdotes about divorce and separation. Heart rending and very moving, but also subtly nuanced and optimistic writing came in from all over the country. Through your fragments and memories—and using the 4,000-year-old mythic relationship of the Greek princess Ariadne and her lover Theseus as our guide—we explores the cycle of love and heartbreak human beings endure...and find it was ever thus.
But also, it is possible to recover and return to the land of the living. Credits: Harmless - Cheryl Howard; The Weaver -Charles D’anastasi; To the Farthest Shores of Silence and Antigen - Doug Baird; Night after Night - Kali; The Dog -Masonik; Dirge - Abigail Lewis; No Sunny Greek Isle for Us - Teadear; Liberation - Sue Gillet; Ordovician Option - Keryn Kefous. Written and composed by Gretchen Miller. Guests Judith Maitland, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, Classics and Ancient History, University of Western Australia, Gaye Stockell Psychologist, Frances Quirk Associate Professor, School of Medicine and Dentistry and Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Matthew Bambling Senior lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Marguerite Johnson Senior Lecturer (Classics), School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Newcastle. Producer Gretchen Miller Sound Engineer Russell Stapleton.

Mountain Iwokrama

'The mountain, Iwokrama': A sound portrait of the 360,000 hectares of biologically diverse and pristine Amazonian rainforest in Guyana, South America, managed in a unique way between international bodies and the indigenous Makushi Amerindians.

The trees project/Trees I’ve loved

As Australia gears up for a summer of bush fires, it is not only property which is lost. Lovingly nurtured gardens, and great tracts of our forests, the trees and the birds, insects and animals they house are also consumed, and with the intensity of the fires they’re often burnt beyond regeneration.  This program is a meditation on the human connection with trees, and is in part your response to a call out for your stories of trees you’ve loved.  We found a multi- branched and leafy passion for trees in the 550 contributions, which came in from all directions all around the country - uploaded to our website, emailed, face-booked and good old fashioned snail mail. The relationship between trees and people goes right back to the forests of the first humans, and our ambivalent relationship with trees can be traced through to the here and now, via fairy tales, mythology, and science, as producer Gretchen Miller, and sound engineer Russell Stapleton found. The program today was written by Gretchen Miller, Jackie Jay, Ian Holland, John Bennett, Tini Cook, GC Smith, Jutta Pryor, Fiona Vaughan and Cameron Semmens. The striking 'war' music at the end of the program is by Michael Atherton from his Ankh cd. And thanks to Maureen Clifford and Jutta Pryor for all their support of trees contributors.
more beautiful short stories of tree connections here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/features/trees/
 

The silent forest: Siamese rosewood

The Siamese rosewood tree is now so valuable that two small pieces carried in a rucksack are worth $500. This kind of money means that armed criminal gangs up to a hundred strong have stripped the forests of Thailand bare of the rosewood. It has been dug out of the central reservations of roads, from temple courtyards and school playgrounds. Nearly all of it is destined for the Chinese rosewood ‘hongmu’ furniture market. There has been a middle-class craze for this traditional furniture since 2008 when centuries-old temples were restored in Beijing, using rosewood, for the Olympic Games. This is the story of what happens when the market concentrates on a single species and wipes it out in nine years; and of what happens to the local people who simply happen to live in the places that this tree used to grow.

One turtle at a time

Sea turtles are extraordinary. They can live up to 100 years, and Australia has six of the world's seven species. In their current form they have been around for over 120 million years, and are therefore perfectly adapted to their environment. But in Australia, that environment is changing quickly, and sea turtles are under threat. Not just by man-made impacts, including indiscriminate fishing practices, marine rubbish, boat traffic and land development, but by climate change too. Their feeding grounds on sea grass beds are also vitally affected by the increasing numbers of cyclones and big weather visiting the north of the country. But each year turtles ‘in recovery’ are the star attraction as turtle rescue volunteers, managers of turtle hospitals, university researchers and turtles in recovery meet in far north Queensland to share what they know. Producer Gretchen Miller joined turtles and volunteers alike and tried not to get bitten by the turtle love bug. 

Tiny blooms - the art of Christine Johnson

Gardens, flowers and the creative process—today we explore all three as we meet flower painter Christine Johnson, and follow the threads of inspiration leading to a new art exhibition entirely of Australian native flowers. Christine's work over the past decades has focussed on gardens and flowers—most recently massive oil paintings that blow up the size of the flower to fill the picture frame. Until recently one of her primary sources has been her childhood garden, filled with exotics - roses, camellias, and the like. But when she moved to Melbourne's Lower Plenty region, Christine moved closer to the bush, and was there to witness the profound effect of the 2009 bushfires on the native plants. Since then, smaller, less showy flowers have caught her gaze and also her intellectual curiosity—and today we explore the artist's various inspirations, whose tendrils curl all the way from French emperor Napoleon and his botany-mad wife Josephine, to the Australian landscape artists Hans Heysen and Arthur Streeton.

The Frenchman’s Garden

Two hundred and fifty kilometres north-west as the crow flies of the mining township of Mount Isa, on the border of the Northern Territory and Queensland, undulates the cool, green-tinged waters of the Lawn Hill Creek.2 Spring fed, and with 200 kilometres of savannah country to traverse before it reaches the mangroves of the Culf of Carpentaria, it forms an oasis on the edge of the sandstone Constance Range. There are thousands of square kilometres of impassable limestone country to the west, and the wide expanses of the black soil plains of the Gulf savannah to the east. This is where the Frenchman, Albert De L'estang built a botanic garden, communicating with botanists all over the world. But he had a secret. In fact, he had more than one.
This project formed part of my Master of Arts thesis from UTS, in 1999.
 

Danny and Lara

Two lovers stroll between pubs and meander down suburban city streets, dreaming of people and parties and of leaving it all behind and heading bush. One night their feet take them harbourside and what happens next changes their dreams for good.