The Sea

In Tasmania the sea exerts a powerful presence, defining and reinforcing an island identity. I walk beside the sea, note its changing appearance, wonder at its depths and the variety of creatures that inhabit it. Shells and sea urchins line my windowsills. I am always conscious of the sea. To the colonists of this place, the sea must have been perceived as the route ‘home’, but also as the barrier to reaching it. To me, now, the coastline defines and contains ‘home’.