Helping the Animals to be not so Anonymous with Adrian Sheriff

09/02/21 • 45 min

*Post Growth Australia Podcast travels to Animals Anonymous HQ in the Adelaide Hills to chat with Adrian Sherriff – wildlife demonstrator, native vegetation restorer, and co-host of the excellent Aussie Wildlife Show podcast. As a wildlife demonstrator, Adrian brings native mammals, reptiles and birds to schools, universities and other groups to provide kids and adults an up close and personal education on Australia’s unique and diverse animals. As co-host of Aussie Wildlife Podcast with Steve Crawford, he chats to a range of fascinating guests around everything wildlife and beyond. As someone who sees the bigger picture of human impact on this dry and ancient continent and the impact this has on other species, Adrian also shares with PGAP his vision of a Post-Growth future.
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This is not the first time that a conversation between Adrian and I has been recorded! I first met Adrian back in 2018 on a prior visit to Adelaide where we bonded over Sustainable Population (it is actually possible to bond over this controversial issue – trust me!) Not only did we bond, I was also invited to talk exclusively on this issue as the (then) new Communications Manager for SPA. We recorded outside and the interview ended both abruptly and apocalyptically as a storm surged through toward the end. I took it as a sign of the times we are in!

Adrian was the first person I contacted when I arrived back in Adelaide in March this year. My stay was only supposed to be ‘a couple of weeks’ - this turned out to be nearly six months in the end! Anyway, I was delighted when Adrian said an emphatic ‘yes’ to a return interview for PGAP. It was great to come back to the property and capture Adrian’s own thoughts issues such as population, degrowth, and what a different, more eco-centric society looks like for him. It was also a great opportunity to ask some questions around the ethics of domesticating native animals and the pros and cons around this. I have always found the conversations with fellow podcast hosts an extra blast and Adrian proves to be no exception.

It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet with the animals at Animals Anonymous HQ and wander his property, including an impressive native vegetation restoration project. Below is me bonding with a python and overcoming my ophiophobia.

A word of warning: For some reason my recording apparatus struggled with the numerous background sounds on the site of Adrian’s property and overcompensated by dipping in and out of volume throughout the discussion. From the technology's perspective, it was trying to do the right thing, but at the end of the day I have to give it an A for effort but an F for execution and for not consulting with me its intent. I spent days on manual ‘volume’ control editing to even out the worst of it but unfortunately it still sounds a bit shaky.

Also – because I had to record the intro and outro before I left Adelaide, I had no idea of what music I was going to play for the episode so I didn’t say anything ‘on air.’ So let it be written that I’m honoured to be playing a track from local Adelaide musician and dear friend of mine Sean Tyner called ‘On The Streets.'

I hope you all forgive me for the recording quirks on this occasion. I promise to make it up to you next time!

And a couple of links before we say adieu:

The Animals Anonymous website can be found here
The Aussie Wildlife Show can be found here on Podbean. It can be found on many Podcast listening platforms.
If you haven’t had enough of me rabbiting on and want to know what I sound like as an interview, my interview with Aussie Wildlife Show can be found here.
Sean Tyner’s music can be found on his website here.
Finally, thank you to Sustainable Population Australia for making PGAP possible. You may be interested in their new short video 'Let's rethink Big Australia' here

Special Guest: Adrian Sherriff.

I hope you all forgive me for the recording quirks on this occasion. I promise to make it up to you next time!

And a couple of links before we say adieu:

Special Guest: Adrian Sherriff.

Previous Episode

On The Road with Doone Wyborn and Bindarrabi Intentional Community

Doone Wyborn is the founder of the Bindarrabi intentional community, inland and uphill of the northern rivers. A former geologist, he worked on the potential of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) geothermal energy from 1992 to retirement in 2013 and is recognised as a leading Australian authority on this subject. With his finger definitely on the pulse on environmental science and limits to growth, Doone started an intentional community based around community sufficiency, frugal abundance and low carbon living. On a very rainy summer afternoon, Doone shares with PGAP the ins and outs of Bindarrabi community, why societal collapse is a very real and current threat, and why intentional living away from the big capital cities is a very legitimate thing to do!

This special travelogue episode of PGAP was recorded all the way back in January 2021. My car and I had left Melbourne after the second lockdown and we were enjoying the coastline of NSW when COVID started creeping into Sydney and Brisbane again. Originally I intended to only go as far north as Coffs Harbour, but as I couldn’t get back to Victoria, I received an invitation to stay for a week or so at in intentional community inland of the Northern Rivers, right on the border of Queensland and right near a town called ‘Woodenbong.’ I was intrigued and took up the offer.

At Bindarrabi, I joined the residents at house meetings, communal dinners, gardening bees, path and wall building, and a lot of swimming during the warm days at the amazing water holes. Every single one of the amazing residents at Bindarrabi were incredibly gracious and made me feel right at home and part of a buzzing community. Toward the end of my stay, Doone and I impulsively agreed to record an interview, in a tin caravan come office during a heavy sub-tropical summer rainfall. I feel that this gives the interview a sense of place an intimacy.

I’m not sure why I held onto this interview for so long, however the broadcast of this episode falls shortly after the sobering news of the new report by the IPCC. This is accidentally great timing, as Doone’s interview starts off with a tour of Bindarrabi before going deeper into a reflection of overshoot, collapse and environmental tipping points. Doon does not shy away from sharing his emotions and concerns as the interview progresses and indeed I feel compelled to give a slight disclaimer to be emotionally prepared before listening to this episode.

The choice of music this episode is ‘No Easy Way Down’ from my own band ‘Shock Octopus.’ . Given the sobering news of the IPCC report and some of the discussions in this interview, I thought it would be quite thematically consistent to play a song that is about climate change from the perspective of a polar bear. ‘No Easy Way Down’ was released as a fundraiser single last year to raise funds for Extinction Rebellion.

Following the episode, want to explore some more? Let these links be thine guide!

The sixth assessment report of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can be read in full here. Given the future of existence depends in part on following these recommendations, I do agree taking the time to read in full. Otherwise, I like the summary from The Guardian here.

The homepage for the Bindarrabi community can be found here. They are looking for new additions to their community if you’re feeling the call.

Recently I spoke at Adelaide based Economic Reform Australia. I strongly recommend checking them out, they have a great newsletter full of economic critique articles.

I was interviewed on Radio Adelaide Songcatcher and Mixtape programs to talks about the stories behind the songs with my decade long band Shock Octopus. If you’re tired of hearing me ramble about post-growth and would rather I ramble about another topic, these links are for you.

A huge thanks to Sustainable Population Australia for making the podcast possible.

Special Guest: Doone Wyborn.

Next Episode

Exploring Christie Walk EcoHousing with Adelaide Chronicles and Town Planning Rebellion

This special and unorthodox episode of PGAP was recorded on-site the Christie Walk ecological co-housing development in central Adelaide to speak to not one, but TWO very special guests. Sue Gilbey is a resident of Christie Walk, host of the Adelaide Chronicles podcast series, an environmental activist, and an advocate for social justice causes. She is the only Australian (so far) to receive the internationally acclaimed Bremen Peace Award. Mark Allen is the founder of Town Planning Rebellion and Holistic Activism. He is a former town planner and former co-host of the City Limits program on Melbourne’s 3CR radio station. In this episode, Sue takes us on a virtual tour of Christie Walk as an example of sustainable inner city community development. Mark provides insight and clarity as to why places like Christie Walk are the exception and not the rule -and why we need to fight back at Australia’s broken property and housing sector (and those who profit most from this status quo).

This is an interview in two parts. In part one of the interview, I caught up with Sue at Christie Walk to share her amazing life story, which includes a travelogue of rural Australia, Bangladesh and Cambodia. She shares her work campaigning for a sustainable and inclusive future for all people. Sue herself lives with an acquired disability, but this has not held her back from her tireless activism which includes hosting the incredible Adelaide Chronicles podcast.

In Part 2, I met up again with Sue at Christie Walk and was delighted to be joined by Mark Allen from Town Planning Rebellion and Holistic Activism. Using Christie Walk as a central focus, the conversation then broadens into a discussion at to why alternative housing models are a critical part of the transition toward a post-growth world. Further, how the developer and investor infiltrated housing sector makes this crucial change so difficult. Mark Allen is a return guest to PGAP, having been a special guest in last year’s Retrosuburbia episode with David Holmgren. Mark also provides the music for this episode, via the track ‘Lost and Found Hours’ from his music project ‘Counting Backwards.’

This was the first time PGAP has attempted a three way interview on location and we were very fortunate to take advantage of Sue’s amazing portable 360 degree recording device. Sue and I ebb in an out of swapping ‘interviewer’ and ‘interviewee’ roles but I think we just about pull it off in a post-modern way. It is not every day you get to describe the aims of your podcast on your own show but we live in fascinating times.

This episode was recorded with gratitude on unceded Kaurna land and PGAP pays respect to elders past, present and emerging.

Special Guests: Mark Allen and Sue Gilbey.