The task is to restore the grass to the top of the hill. The kangaroos have no predator, the local folk lore says, and so they multiply to the landscape’s detriment. The bald patches are starting to join.
A dam is a negative mine. They dig a hole not to take something but to put something in. When they dig the hole they scrape off the top soil and leave it in a pile next to the dam for rabbits and wombats to live in.
No one lives there any more and we wanted to make more space around the dam.
What to do with the dirt?
With the aid of earth moving machinery the big pile was made into four piles which were spread indecisively across the block by a tipper truck.
These four piles were like hills in the foreground, made to look so by having the real thing in the distance.
With the aid of a wheel barrow and my body I have spread the middle pile of soil into the bald patches where the grass is receding. They look like hills too, but not in the near distance, but the far distance, being that they are so small and spread out.
Original pile
Indecisive pile
Smallest piles