Trails in the Ground: Speculating on the Intimate Histories of the Bunurong Coast

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Abstract

This paper undertakes a speculative exploration of the idiosyncratic agency of the entangled tracks encrypted throughout the region known as the Bunurong Coast in Victoria's southeast. It is a rambling yarn that creatively explores how those marks - and the past happenings and traversings they embody - influence both perceptions and interactions with other Australian regions we inhabit. Referencing archival, literary and photographic amalgams created to document and respond to the tracks and trails that crisscross the lands, waterways and skies, this piece engages with the complexities, violent silences and intrigue of intergenerational connections to a specific place. It attempts to disentangle and survey the sometimes thorny, often uncomfortable, and occasionally joyous layered meanings and knowledges embodied in the byways and trails of the Bunurong Coast. In doing so, it explores the enigmatic and subjective connection to place that can be deciphered through research, careful observation, and speculative fusions of Polaroid photography, prose and oral history. This intimate and subjective essay aims to make a personal contribution to the rich and textured body of knowledge of the Bunurong Coast. In doing so, I also hope it provides a novel contribution to the personal essay form, an addition that might also provide a model for other practitioners adopting non-traditional approaches to historically informed place-based storytelling.

Author Biography

  • Rees Quilford, RMIT

    Rees Quilford is a Victorian-based writer and maker. He is a PhD candidate with the non/fictionLab at RMIT University. His research interests include creative non-fiction, interactive storytelling, and mixed-media making practices.

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Published

2025-05-09

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Articles

How to Cite

Trails in the Ground: Speculating on the Intimate Histories of the Bunurong Coast. (2025). Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 24(2). https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/JASAL/article/view/20214