The Land of Oz, a Cautionary Fairy Tale?

In the Beginning     

Once upon a time, there was a Land called Oz, in a very big island, a long, long way away.  Mummy Nature was the caretaker of Oz and, with her big nurturing arms, and her endless supply of milk and honey, ensured that all the animals had plenty to eat and that there were plenty beautiful big gum trees to provide shelter on windy and rainy days.  She also provided streams, rivers, and beautiful billabongs where the animals could drink their fill when they were thirsty.  

There used to be gum trees and many, many other kinds of trees near where mummy and daddy lived in the old habitat, when they first got married, but these were taken away by the developer people a long time ago.  One day mummy and daddy will take you to the tree museum where you can see trees just like these ones that grandpa and oma used to walk beside, near their other world Queensland home many years ago.

So back to the story. The first people who lived in this magical mystery place understood the land and followed the laws which Mummy Nature had set in place.  They were known as the aboriginal people.  They had dark skins to protect them during their long days in the sun and they lived in the Dream Time, a time when all Mummy Nature's world began.  These aboriginal people also went walkabout in the big sandy deserts in the middle of Oz, away from the wide coastal areas where the gum trees were located, for here the land was even more beautiful than in Mummy Nature's gum tree gardens.  

These first people only took from the land and the water what they needed to eat and drink and left Mummy Nature's garden to grow for the animals to enjoy. They understood about fire and cyclones and that these are essential for Mummy Nature's gardens and deserts to stay healthy and to thrive and grow.

Life was simple then and it was possible to walk for days and days without seeing other people or animals. The skies were blue then and the air was clean and free from what we now call pollution and smog. You can still see blue skies in the old habitat, but you have to be travelling high up above the pollution and the clouds.  Mummy and daddy are taking you on one of these shiny big rocket planes next month to visit your grandpa and oma in the old habitat and you'll be able to see blue skies for yourself, but only for a short while before you land.  Here's a picture of the blues skies and lots and lots of trees that grandpa and oma used to be able to see when they were a little bit older than you.

And Then Came the Wizard

Then one day the First Fleet arrived and everything started to change. Men and women came who had been asked to leave their own land, far, far away across the big sea, and along with them came soldiers who had big guns with which they could shoot animals for food and even shoot other people when they were naughty or had arguments.

There were many arguments between the aboriginal people, who had been in Oz first, and the new people, who arrived on these very big wooden ships called the First Fleet.

Back in that time Oz eventually came under the control of the Wizard, who was a big and very important man who told all the people in Oz what to do.  He had been sent to Oz by the Good Witch of the West, a very powerful and rich lady from that same far away land across the big sea from which the First Fleet had come.

They built houses and started to clear away many of the trees and grow things to eat. At first they were only found in a few places near the sea, but later they moved away from the coast and moved inland where they cleared very large areas of land and started to make large farms for growing crops, and large open areas, called stations, for keeping lots and lots of sheep and cows, so that the people who were now living in towns and cities could eat and wear clothes from cotton and wool and leather. 

The Wizard, back in those days, was regularly replaced by the Good Witch of the West and Oz did well, grew and became what the country far, far away over the sea called a colony.

And Then Came the Industrialists

After there had been many many Wizards running Oz, the people descended from the First Fleet found all sorts of metals in the ground, such as gold and silver and nickel, which were useful to make many bright and shiny things which we still rely on today. Lots of big holes were opened up in the ground and these metals were sent overseas to feed what we call heavy industry.  A lot of Mummy Nature's laws were forgotten, along with the aboriginal people's ways of living alongside Mummy Nature without having problems.

Coal was also found and more very big holes were opened up to get it out of the ground and to send it overseas to make power to keep people warm or cold, or to allow them to make things and move things using steam engines.

Then oil was found below the ground and below the seas, and big machines called drilling rigs were brought in to bring it to the surface so that it could be turned into the petrol that mummy and daddy used to put into their cars, when they were allowed to drive in the old habitat. This was back in the days before the computer controlled drive modules we move around in now.

All these things which were found in the ground made a lot of men, called industrialists, very rich, but most of these rich people were living in big lands far across the sea.  Because the people of Oz also wanted to be rich they sold not only the things found in the ground, but also allowed the big rich people from far across the sea to come to Oz and to buy land and houses. The big rich people were also allowed to buy the sheep and cattle stations and the food farms, which all became the property of the big lands from across the sea.

This all happened after the many Wizards lost their magic, and Oz was eventually run by a whole lot of State Premiers and a Prime Minister and their helpers, called governments. These government people came under the control of those rich industrialists, although it's funny that, when asked, these government people tried to tell the people of Oz that the people themselves run Oz and that the government people only do what Oz people want them to do, and that's what is good for the Oz people; but deep down, the Oz people knew that the big greedy industrialists had the real power, not just in Oz, but all across what Mummy Nature used to call Earth, or the World.

And Then Came the Pollution

After a while, all the burning of coal and oil and the dust from the digging of holes (and other things which the industrialists did to make life easier for the Oz people to live), produced lots and lots of smoke and dirt (called pollution) which went into the air and into the streams, rivers and sea. This is why grandpa and oma have these big air filters in their houses, charcoal filters on their drinking water, and special medicine like mummy takes to help with her asthma.  Some clever people formed committees and approached the industrialists to ask them to be more clever with their production of things for easier life-making, but the industrialists argued with these clever people and called them greenies. The industrialists told the people of Oz that it would cost too much money to be more clever with production of easy-life things, and that the pollution was a natural thing and not the fault of the industrialists. The industrialists also told the people of Oz that, if they wanted to work and get paid, so that they could eat and have easy-life things, they needed to support the industrialists and not listen to the greenies.

Meanwhile, Mummy Nature had become quite sick and her temperature started to rise.  There was no medicine that Mummy Nature could take to get better, as her sickness was related to the pollution in the air and water.  As her temperature got higher, the water in the sea, where she swam and took here daily bath, also started to rise. In order to keep the World, in which the Land of Oz is located, nice and cool for much of the time, and all the animals and plants and trees healthy, Mummy Nature used to have icy cold areas at the top and bottom of the World, like the paddle pops and slushy ice drinks that mummy gives you from the refrigerator, and very warm areas called tropics in the middle of the World, just like the cook top and oven in the middle of your living module.  

When kept in balance, these icy cold and warm areas used to act together to form winds to blow around the world and form what we call climate. But because Mummy Nature had a rising temperature, the ice cold areas started to melt, just like your paddle pop when you leave it too close to mummy's oven; and the additional water from this ice melting meant that the sea levels rose and many of the small islands close to the coast of Oz disappeared under the sea. As she got sicker, Mummy Nature also started to lose her balance and this meant that the climate also lost its balance.

After a while, Oz experienced lots and lots of big and nasty bush fires and lots and lots of strong scary cyclones; lots more  and much worse than the natural fires and cyclones which the aboriginal people welcomed in the Dreamtime, which was way before the Wizard and the industrialists came to Oz.

What Happened to the Animals?

Mummy Nature eventually became too hot and lost her balance so much that she fell over.  This meant that she couldn't look after all the plants and trees and animals anymore and many of them disappeared, along with Mummy Nature's garden, which was now badly burnt by bigger and bigger bush fires or flattened by stronger and more regular cyclones.

But they didn't all disappear.  As I told you before, mummy and daddy will take you to see some of the trees in the tree museum one day soon and we still have a few of the animals from Oz in the zoo here in Planetville.  Here's a picture of a cuddly koala which used to live in gum trees in Oz. 

When grandpa and oma first moved to Queenslandin the old habitat, there were still lots of these koalas living in gum tree forests near their house.  But that was before all the developer people cut down their trees and they were left with nothing to eat.

But not all the industrial people in Oz (and the lands outside Oz) were greedy.  There were a few, called philanthropists (that means people who give some of the money that they have earned by dealing with industrial people in order to do good things) who tried to nurse Mummy Nature back to health. Unfortunately the industrial people who controlled Oz, and many of the lands outside Oz, wouldn't listen to the philanthropists. There came a time when many of the people in Oz understood what the philanthropists and greenies were trying to do but they concluded that the philanthropists' money was 'too little, too late' and, sadly, Mummy Nature passed away.  

And Then We Moved

That was a long time ago now, about the time that most of our people from the old habitat moved here to Mars and also onto other planets and worlds, with a lot of help from the philanthropists.  But don't be sad, dry your tears, because mummy and daddy are going to take you to the tree museum and the zoo soon, and you can see some of the beautiful trees and plants and interesting animals for yourself, and think about how wonderful life must have been for all those people in the old habitat, just like the Land of Oz, back when Mummy Nature was a young girl. 

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Is this the fairy tale you want to tell your grandchildren and great grandchildren? Wake up and smell the roses wilting, or else your children's children are off to colonise into the unknown again ..... if they're lucky!

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http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.