The story of the erasure of the Great Swamp is in keeping with the story of lost wetlands globally, where this vital landscape type has been systematically dumped in, drained, and built on. For Boon Wurrung people, these waterscapes were central to the rituals of gathering and sustenance, but urban and agricultural modification has left us as custodians of an altered ecosystem, degraded after two centuries of extractive processes.

Mostly locked away from human view, the visualization of leftover, isolated Great Swamp fragments, like this ‘immortal’ melaleuca mound, provides a new type of accessibility that draws attention to wetlands’ diverse qualities without disturbing their fragility. The Lidar scan is a three-dimensional model that allows viewing from any angle. To explore the difference between this and a photograph, analytical representations include sectional cuts through the model and fly-through video sequences that are evocative of a more-than-human perspective – something akin to a flying insect. Cross-sections shown in still and panning sequences, and grouped in scales of closeness, reveal the grain and texture of worlds hidden from the contemporary metropolitan gaze.