by Carla Caruso

Many fascinating people frequent your Adelaide Park Lands.

Among them is Goodwood eco activist Mary Heath behind the craft blog, Local and Bespoke.

“I used to work teaching law at a university, and in 2018, I read the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report about the state of the science on the climate emergency a few years before, and I was so concerned that I decided to leave my job,” says Mary, 57. 

“I wanted to spend more time [helping] and trying to figure out how to get action out of our government.”

The mother-of-one took a package and began volunteering with Extinction Rebellion South Australia – part of a global environmental movement, using non-violent civil disobedience to get its message heard.

“I used to have quite a life-eating job, where I spent a lot of time at work and thinking about work – getting to work, coming home from work, travelling for work. Now I spend a lot more of my time out in the world, enjoying nature or just travelling under my own steam: walking, running and riding.”

“I use the bike path along West Terrace a lot, skirting the Park Lands along there. I go in through the West Terrace Cemetery [in GS Kingston Park / Wirrarninthi – Park 23] and out the other side quite regularly. I’m a bit gripped by all the plantings in the cemetery and the history that it represents there … and I cycle all the way through to the River Torrens.”

As part of her activism, Mary was involved in a public clothes-mending action on April 20 for Fashion Revolution Week, dubbed Stitch It, Don’t Ditch It.

She was among ‘rebels’ seated in a line of chairs outside fast-fashion chain H&M in Rundle Mall, mending clothes and engaging with passers-by in an act of ‘joyful disruption’. 

“What we wear, the sheets we sleep in, and the fabrics that we use for all kinds of purposes in our life represent a huge global pollution and waste problem,” Mary says.

In her spare time, she also does “guerrilla gardening” in her neighbourhood, putting in appropriate plants and removing rubbish in “unloved, weedy bits of ground”. 

Spending more time in nature has made Mary aware of the changing patterns of local wildlife. For this, she blames land clearing, destroying habitats, and the use of pesticides and herbicides.

“I feel as though I can actually see climate change happening with my own eyes, even in the Park Lands,” Mary says. 

“I remember how shocked I was when the grey-headed flying foxes first arrived [in Botanic Park in Park 11]. I had never seen them in that part of the Park Lands before, and I wanted to know why they were there.

“People were amazed and delighted to see wildlife in the Park Lands. But it’s not right that they should be there… Temperatures are already rising, so [the bats] are moving to places where they have what they need to live – where the temperature is survivable, where food is available, where shelter is available.”

Mary continues: “I remember when I had never seen an ibis in the Park Lands before. They didn’t come to the city, and they certainly didn’t graze on ovals in the Park Lands. 

“I love seeing them, but it’s wrong that they should be there. And it makes me so sad to see that the ibis was a sacred bird in the past, and now they’re called ‘bin chickens’, because that’s where humans have put them.

“We now have kookaburras in the metropolitan area and flocks of galahs in the Park Lands, which I don’t remember seeing in the past either.

“It’s amazing to be seeing a koala in the Park Lands, but also why would a koala want to be near the junction of Anzac Highway and the railway line if it had a choice? Why would a koala be there?” It’s food for thought.