Dr Dominique Hes has an extraordinary ability to connect ideas. As a researcher, educator, author and advocate for more regenerative ways of living, her career has spanned science, architecture, sustainability and regenerative development, giving her a rare perspective on the relationships between people, places and the natural world. She is also the author of The Stories of Newport Lakes and a member of the Friends of Newport Lakes.

In this episode, we walk through the 33 hectare Newport Lakes Reserve in Melbourne's inner west. Once native grasslands and sheoak woodland, the landscape was transformed into a bluestone quarry before becoming the thriving community reserve of lakes, wetlands, grasslands and rocky escarpments we see today. It is a place that could easily have become a landfill, but instead became one of Melbourne's most remarkable examples of ecological rehabilitation.

As we wander the reserve, Dominique shares the stories behind its transformation and the community effort that helped shape the reserve that exists today.

Our conversation explores a question that extends well beyond Newport Lakes: what does restoration look like when a landscape has been changed forever? Dominique reflects on how places like Newport Lakes can never become exactly what they once were, yet can still become something different and beautiful. Through that transformation, they can provide a home for wildlife while helping people build meaningful relationships with the natural world.

Throughout our walk, one idea keeps resurfacing: people protect what they know, and they care for what they love. Newport Lakes reminds us that understanding the story of a place can be just as important as restoring its ecology, and that both are essential if we want nature to thrive in our cities.

https://newportlakesstories.com/welcome/about/

https://newportlakesstories.com/stories-of-newport-lakes/

https://friendsofnewportlakes.com.au/

https://youtu.be/wvbAhn10UhM?si=e_XdS4EEEL_rXZ3w

https://www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Community/Parks-and-reserves/Newport-Lakes