Hear My Cries..., 'A Sense of Place', Creative Writing and the Environment, Writer's Workshop Weekend (IDIOM 23, CQU), 29th April-1st May, North Keppel Island, Queensland

Abstract

The core of this piece was writtena and presented as a poem at the 'A Sense of Place', Creative Writing and the Environment Writer's Workshop Weekend, 29th April-1st May, 2005, on North Keppel Island, Central Queensland. The photographs were added later. I was motivated to write the piece from my sadness at coming across a dead groper on the beach at Keppel Sands early one morning. The groper had washed up in the tide during the previous night. I contacted Pamela Croft and she and I later removed the groper from the beach and placed the groper in an area where it would decompose into the earth in a dignified manner. We did this as we were saddened to what was happening to the groper within hours: children started poking the groper's eyes with sticks and dogs were chewing and ripping pieces from the groper's body. We had someone from the Central Queensland University give us some information about the groper and an indication as to how the Keppel Sands groper may have died (based on the injuries)