2046 VISION OF THE FUTURE
Bunurong / Boon Wurrung, Belgrave, Dandenong Ranges, Victoria, Australia
BY LORETTA
I awake to the soft morning light filtering through the tall honeycombed wall of my mud-straw home. It glows golden. I feel its patterned light awakening every cell in my body as it refracts through my nervous system, a whole body recharge from the patterned sun wall. This is common now.
I am standing on Boon Wurrung Country, amongst the massive manna gums and the mighty mountain ash trees that tower overhead. The town was named Belgrave by new arrivals in the mid-1800s. It sits on the outskirts of Melbourne, in misty mountain country. And it is May, our most honoured time of the year now. The seasons have changed in intensity. We are still basking in the beauty of our extended autumn warmth. No harshness. No extremes. Just this.
I step outside to begin my morning stretches in front of a grove of grey gums, listening to the bronzewing calling for its partner somewhere nearby. The hillside is sprinkled with autumn colour. The air is crisp and perfectly fresh.
A bronzewing lands on a nearby branch and is quiet. Dragonflies drift through the still air.
Across the misty hills, the distant song of butcherbirds carries from ridge to ridge, calling to each other across the ranges. Mountain ash trees tower above, the tallest flowering plants on earth, their upper canopy lost in morning mist, tree ferns clustered in the gully below.
I am still. I am connected. I am home.
Envisioned through: Imagining a Better World, Melbourne Design Week, 2026
_
Image generated with Leonardo AI, 2026
PROMPT: A misty autumn morning view over the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne, 2046. Going down the hill, to the side of view, curved roughly hewn hand made domed mudstraw dwellings, each unique to the other. Half of the buildings have a large window made with thick amber honeycombed patterned glass, the patterns reminiscent of the curved eyes of bees, windows facing the morning sun, sit flush in the curved dome walls. The material glows golden as morning light refracts through the glass forms in delicate geometric patterns. A single figure stands silhouetted before a grove of grey gums and manna gums, arms gently raised in a morning stretch, seen from behind, set against the vast trunks of mountain grey gum trees. The hillside is touched with warm golden light playing across blue eucalyptus leaves, emerald green foliage, the ground covered in moss and tree ferns clustering in the gully below. Hazy soft misty light. The image is rendered in cinematic photorealism and high dynamic range, with ultra-realistic 8K detail, a touch of film grain.