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CONTEXT
Launceston City Council has embarked upon a project to GREENlaunceston and consequently TOWNhall's Urban Forestry division has launched a survey reportedly to glean the citizenries understandings and aspirations. As is all too often the case such administrative initiatives come with a mindset that suggests that what is being sought is an endorsement for a plan in hand, a planner's 'vision' arrived at somewhat in isolation and often in the dark.
Likewise, in the vernacular, wherever it is that these visionary plans come from, the forms are often devised by BLOWins who are not actually, or not yet, part of the cultural reality they are working within. This is not to say that they have no expertise, they do, but its not by necessity of the vernacular.
Now in one sense this is quite OK but we do have to wonder about THEforms that 'must' be filled out. All too often these forms are PUSHpolls – quasi and subliminal or outright. So what is the actual utility in knowing the FORMfiller's gender, age, religion, ethnicity, sexual preferences and political alliances in order to work out where a FORMfillers sits on the MYSTERIOUSspectrum at HEADoffice where the form came from. However, the forms tell the administration quite a bit about their 'clients' cum constituents'' willingness to comply and conform.
Perhaps this stuff is useful information but it is most valuable when volunteered and not extracted, not garnered in a shared sense of placedness.
Nonetheless, asking the inhabitants of a CULTURALlandscape to share their views and aspirations in say 1,000 words and saying to the FORMfiller's that they may share any personal information THEY think is relevant says more. What they share and don't share would be quite illuminating. Then the people at HEADoffice may well be much better informed about the CULTURALrealities they are aiming to work WITH & WITHIN.
Indeed, the 'authority' might well come with a shared understanding of 'placedness' that underwrites an agency for change.
When confronted with a HEADoffice looking for an endorsement for what'THEY' already have a plan for, and that will be, no has been, deemed to be the MOSTappropriate, almost always it will not require challenging change – bureaucratically, long live the status quo, it serves incumbency well. Actually, what is being sought is a common denominator that in a diverse community is unlikely to placate anyone except the compliant.
HOWEVER, one might consider making a SUBMISSION and one MAY even divulge their SEXUALpreferences, who knows, but it, and other 'data' will perhaps be illuminating if one does – and especially so in the context of cultural placemaking.
Against this backdrop I will make a case for BAMBOO being a useful subject for STREETscaping and I will say which of the 14000 species might well fit the circumstance in Launceston from the vantage point of cultural landscaping.
Sadly it seems that the URBANforesters in TOWNhalls wherever can only see 'trees' and bamboo is a grass. It's a BLACK and WHITE thing, a kind of apartheid. What would be useful is the ability to see the wood in the grass.
Then there is the issue of endemic plants and exotic plants from elsewhere but in the end the issue has to be all about viable and sustainable ecologies. In order to 'construct' new HOMEplaces valuable plants have moved with humans, by humans, for millennia ... coconuts, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, apples, plums, wheat, rice, maize etc. etc. etc. Places make culture and culture shapes places.
When we – personally and governments too – think about
reforestation, bamboo may not be the first thing that comes to mind. And it’s true that bamboo isn’t technically a tree — but when planted/grows in areas where it is native, typically it is very beneficial.
As the fastest growing plant on the planet, bamboo has incredible potential as a sustainable ecological resource. Its woody stem makes it very tree-like, yet it also has unique properties. In Tasmania there is a need to learn more about this special plant and what it can deliver!
Indeed, we need to start to think about what bamboo has to offer in urban cultural landscaping along with its place within 'forestry' as a supplementary cum complementary 'timber source'! Importantly, bamboo needs to cohabit with other GREENINGvegetation many of which will also be 'exotic' and in the 21st C that is inevitable – consider plantations of Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus nitens, both of which, in timber output, bamboo might well out perform by three decades.
Also, consider GREENfacads that are very likely to become more common in urban greening strategies as they cool buildings, quieten them and in some instances mitigate against expensive refurbishment. AND, the buildings are not as susceptible to graffiti and other visual pollutants. There is an enormous range of climbing and cascading plants, Australian natives and exotics, that in Tasmania, alongside bamboo, they have much to offer in the way of 'carbon sequestration'.
Many species of bamboo mature in four to eight years. Once plants reach maturity, they can be sustainably harvested as a perennial crop for 40plus years. Comparatively, trees typically take 30 years before being harvestable as timber/fibre. Nonetheless, they have a place in cultural landscapes alongside bamboo in a 21st C context.
Placedness, requires a sustainable ecology in order to offer the security and amenity required. By way of example, in music its 'sustainability', and its cultural utility, is orchestrated and almost always collaboratively. In the 21st C placemaking, sustainable placemaking, the need for collaboration, cooperation, and innovation is increasingly compelling. The 'heroes' in placmaking are those who innovate collaboratively and cooperatively with a Community of Ownership and Interest.
Anything that humanity is interested in, or needs, is not going to happen if we cannot breathe the air, drink the water or find enough food. Humanity just cannot sit this climate emergency out. We must do something. Humanity is by accident and fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the histories and our placedness in the context of our cultural realities.
With bamboo, because only the above round parts are harvested, there is less soil disturbance when it is harvested, which helps maintain stability. Also bamboo in more likely to bend in high winds than break. Bamboo is a 'friendly plant'.
In the end what it all comes down to is strong, healthy rhizomes that encourages vigorous growth of new shoots. In an urban situation, bamboo plantings alongside trees in an URBANforest, bamboo offers utility along with significant amenity that enhances humanity's placedness albeit via its elsewhereness.
A COMMUNITY SANCTUARY BAMBOO GARDEN
As Australia's quarter acre HOMEsite has incrementally diminished in size community gardens have become something of a necessity. Increasingly community gardens have become a vibrant part of urban precincts each with its own idiosyncrasies reflective of the cultural diversity in inclusive multicultural communities.
Arguably there is a role for Bamboo Sanctuary Garden as a community garden – as a 'whole-of-community' asset . Such a garden in reality cannot be managed and function in isolation from 'the community'. Certainly, if a garden of any kind on public land needs the support of Local Governance but ideally in cooperation and collaboration with community members.
That being accepted it is important that such a garden's purpose be clearly understood and articulated. As a 'nice idea' such a garden would have little relevance to many people. While it might be created to demonstrate sustainability, it would become unsustainable quickly enough without meaningfulness and placedness – albeit that such a 'garden' has became a tourism drawcard elsewhere. Click here to read more about the proposed bamboo sanctuary garden
This discussion paper aims to explore bamboo's 'placedness' in an Australian cum Tasmanian CIVICparadigm where status quoism is demonstrably antithetic to the plant. Typically bamboo is called out for being a weed and a plant that "does not belonging in our landscape." The same might be said for European trees, wheat barley, oats and hard hooved animals. 
