SENSE OF PLACE

If you inhabit Hobart, try this. Shut your eyes and ask yourself, where is the mountain? Even if your geographic intuition was off, the mountain exists in your mind.

‘Three qualities: the physical setting, the activities, and the meanings, are fundamental components of place irreducible one to the other, yet inseparably interwoven in people's experiences of places’ said Relph. Adam Barns in his thesis Mount Wellington and Sense of Place quotes Relph and applies him: ‘The mountain stands over Hobart drawing the earth to the sky. It is an intrinsic element in the genius loci of Hobart and its surrounds. As people experience the genius loci their sense of place embodies a particular relationship with The Mountain.’

A place is not ‘a mere flux of phenomena but has structure and embodies meaning.’

In every culture, anthropologists and sociologists find evidence that geological processes such as floods and earthquakes, together with large, impressive, or unusual geological relics—river canyons, mountains, beaches and even the shapes and colours of the stones lying around the place—inspire story-telling and artistic creations, influence cultural behaviours and customary practices, and lie embedded in every religious/legal ethical system. This con-fusion of the natural with the cultural is known as entanglement.

In the Wellington Park Management Plan the mountain’s “earth systems”—its waterfalls, cliffs, gullies, rocks and viewpoints—are seen as simultaneously the “foundation for the Park's ecosystems and the basis for its high landscape value”. The values of the ecosystem (natural) and the landscape (cultural) are entangled.

Though some would go much further, it is generally agreed that landscapes are the result of the interaction between three forces: physical, biological, and cultural. (In some cases, this entanglement has become more widely appreciated shortly after the places were destroyed.) Academics consider that natural heritage cannot readily be disconnected from cultural heritage because “the framing and valorisation of every geological heritage site is conducted within its own contemporary cultural setting”. A particularly strong association or overlap between geological and cultural heritage values creates a geo-cultural heritage place.

‘It is likely that many Hobartians feel the Genius loci especially in the wilderness and wild places that make up Mount Wellington. For the nineteenth century traveller this may have been the walk to the summit, and the wonder at the panorama of the tiny town and its many bays and inlets spread out before them. For the twenty-first century traveller or recreation user, this is more subtle. Increasing built form and associated infrastructure of a major dimension diminishes this value. Genius loci in the case of Mount Wellington is intimately related to the maintenance of the wild and wilderness qualities of the mountain, to its geomorphology and landforms, its vegetation, its significant historical landscape values, and its lack of development.’ (Barnes)

Into an astonishing questionnaire (see refs) hundreds of Hobartians poured out their hearts, telling the Wellington Park Management Trust of how they lost their virginity, proposed marriage, got married, took their kids and scattered their parent’s ashes up there on the mountain.

When asked “What value has the Mountain for you?” Hobartians revealed their journeys from experience to devotion. Their remarkable and unique love letters demonstrate Relph’s nexus of setting, activity and meaning, and show that attachment to the Mountain is widespread, long held and profound.

“Part of Hobart’s character comes from the Mountain Air.” wrote respondent #24 [No names, only numbers identify the participants].  Respondent 146 recalls, “While walking in the misty rain, my mind considered that I was able to take a walk in heaven.” Another remembered how (many, many years past) “When I was a small child, where I lived I had a great view of the mountain, and I thought that the snow-covered Springs Hotel was where Father Christmas lived.”“When dawn breaks and throws a caste of pink over the Wellington Wonderland–tell me a heart that is not moved.”

The Mountain’s value is as much as life itself. Some people value the Mountain to the extent that “it defines their lives”: “It’s the most important place in the world to me. I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world.” (HC35)

“Go yourself [to an auction] and see what any historic painting of Mt. Wellington fetches. We all understand the value of this natural monument and the value that it has held for all those who have been here long before us.” (313)

“It is a part of Hobart’s soul.” (320)

To some, the Mountain is alive, a living force that can teach us things great and small. It makes us what we are.

“She is an everyday weather advisor to me ... and I seek her advice on clothes for work each morning. Growing up in Glenorchy, the Mountain’s presence always guided me and watched over me.” (204)

“She has her own personality, a presence, sometimes cool, but always dignified, and we nestle just beautifully in her bosom.”

Without it, the people would be lost. Not simply because it is a landmark and a signpost of home, but because of its presence.

“I was born in Dynnyrne, so I have lived under the mountain all my life. The view from the summit is home. We lived in North Hobart for six months, in that time we could not see the Mountain at all; it was a very bad time, so many things went wrong, we had to move so we could once again see the Mountain. So you can see now why I love the Mountain, and if I cannot see it every morning I am lost.” (164)

It can be bitter-sweet. Respondent 269 wrote of her grief-stricken experience of the mountain as "the place where, after being kept on life support machines, after we took her home from the hospital, then to the mountain, my 9-day-old daughter took her last breath.” 

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From the Social Survey report’s very first sentence, Wellington Park is shown to be the community’s home away-from-home. Its natural, social capital. For many, that attachment is spiritual. The mountain-top is hallowed ground. Buried deep in the report was this revelation: The summit area is the place in the Park where the major number of ashes of deceased family members are scattered.

The survey report author, Anne McConnell, argued that these social values have antecedents and thus, historical validity. They informed the original Mountain Park Act a century ago, and ‘appear’ to have applied since at least the early days of … Hobart.’ What is unstated, but strongly implied is that they likely applied for thousands of years before then too. Gwenda Sheridan made similar observations after a comprehensive study of creative responses to the mountain throughout time and space. So it appears reasonable for McConnell to have concluded that these values are the social values for the Park.

Coming full circle, Barnes concluded that ‘Much as a craftsman imparts something of his personality to the things he makes, so a community can transfer its character to a landscape.’

Sheridan’s report (Volume 2) links the concept to Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural life. ‘There is no reason not to believe that Tasmanian indigenous peoples held that Mount Wellington contained the association, the memory, the feeling, the concept of ‘Genius loci’.’ The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Heritage Officer, Sharnie Read, confirmed Sheridan’s reasoning. ‘For a lot of Aboriginal people, particularly down here in the south, kunanyi is such a dominant feature in our landscape. By landscape, I mean the view, the physical and human view as well as the presence of the mountain, including its sounds. Together, it is a Cultural Landscape to me as an Aboriginal person. There is a very strong connection, and the connection relies upon the view of kunanyi.’

The earliest sense of place for the Mountain is yet to be fully re-covered, but a clue hides within its placename kunanyi.

HERITAGE ASSESSMENT

Recognising the mountain’s Sense of Place is a heritage recommendation of Gwenda Sheridan. She argued that the Mountain’s genius loci be heritage listed: “The Genius loci for Mount Wellington needs to be recognised as an integral part of Wellington Park and its surrounds. This relates to the long-held perceptions, memories, meanings, and associations, and aesthetics of place. It must be retained. High priority.”

The Mountain’s Sense of Place is at the heart of the Wellington Park Management Plan. In the Plan, the Park has three overall value systems: Use Values, Natural Values and Cultural Values. Each is subdivided; and within the four fields of cultural value, the fourth is “sense of place” (Page 14 of the Plan). The plan recognises that the mountain is part of the community’s ‘extended sense of self’:

Sense of Place is identified in the Wellington Park Management Plan’s Statement of Significance.

Anne McConnell’s Pinnacle Development Plan states that ‘The social value of Wellington Park is underscored by...its overall contribution to the ‘sense of place’ of living in Tasmania.’

REFERENCES

Adam Barnes Mount Wellington and Sense of Place, UTAS thesis 1991

Gwenda Sheridan, The Historic Landscape Values of Mount Wellington, Hobart An evolution across time, place and space (WPMT 2010)