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OUTSIDE my living room window sits a living relationship between a Bottlebrush and a garden hedge.

Over the course of 18 months, I saw this relationship grow.

The Bottlebrush fanned out its branches, grew its leaves, and provided food for local Honeyeaters.

The hedge next to the Bottlebrush, being more agile, grew into its neighbour, seemingly embracing it.

The hedge provided excellent cover for birdlife, as well as fruit. In spring it bloomed, its little white flowers attracting lots of bees.

One morning I spent a good 15 minutes gazing at a King Parrot as it took advantage of the cover and food the Bottlebrush and the hedge provided.

This was not the first time King Parrots flew to this thriving relationship.

It was a marvel to see these majestic green and red parrots a metre or so from my window; they would make my day.

About three months ago I came home to the sound of a chainsaw.

Hired gardeners were cutting back the Bottlebrush and the hedge, which grow in common property. They had almost finished their work.

Growth had been chopped back to the point of emaciation; a skeleton of branches was now visible. The job done, while practical, had rendered the two a shadow of their former selves.

Now no Honeyeaters or King Parrots visit the Bottlebrush and the hedge. It will be some time before there is growth enough for birds or bees.

I am waiting with interest and heart to see what kind of growth will happen now that spring is here.

It seems to me that what has happened to the Bottlebrush and the hedge is analogous to how we have lived with nature during the industrialisation of the last 300 years or so.

We have used machinery to meet our needs at the expense of the environment of which we are a part.

The chainsaw cutting its way into the relationship that the Bottlebrush and hedge lived, not only them, but also the birds and the bees with them, is like the bulldozers and explosives that have cut deeply into the balance and interdependence of nature that we all rely on to live healthy as well as productive lives.

Gone are the days of profit and practicality at the expense of nature's balance. Our response to climate change now needs a different approach.

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