Hunting and gathering are in my blood. But I've lived long enough to witness a diminution in the seas, and to notice a fragility where once I saw - or assumed - an endless bounty.

Australia was once a leader in taking global warming seriously. The former PM [Kevin Rudd] called it 'greatest moral challenge of our time'. But in the past couple of years the national consensus has been eroded and Australians are being encouraged by the polluters and their mates in Parliament to forget it was ever mentioned. It's heartbreaking.

I was in my thirties before I learnt that I too would prefer not to see what I could no longer have

It's sadness coming on like the old days, the vast seamless hopeless weight of sadness looking for a place to rest.

And you can't help but worry for them, love them, want for them - those who go on down the close, foetid galleries of time and space without you.

I grew up in a family that believed love was at work in the world. I guess that's a religious idea, though of course it needn't be.

For every moment the sea is peace and relief, there is another when it shivers and stirs to become chaos. It's just as ready to claim as it is to offer.