I am standing in a street not far from my home in Sydney. It is mostly unexceptional – a mix of redbrick detached and semi-detached houses, plantings of melaleucas and scrubby, dark-barked callistemons. Indeed, the only unusual thing is that whereas in most streets around it verges are grass, here there is a small stencil reading “no mow” on the footpath, and, behind it the verge is given over to an assortment of native grasses and low groundcovers instead of lawn.
This verge and others like it are the result of a program initiated by the local council, under which residents are able to ask to have the grass in front of their houses left uncut. That may seem a small change, but it is also symbolic of a larger shift with the place of lawn in Australian cities, and, just possibly, a deeper renegotiation with the relationship the landscape more generally.
