In this (purportedly) Anthropocene epoch, are schools meaningfully learning with 'Earth in mind'? This paper explores the early stages of a participatory action research (PAR) project in an inner-urban Melbourne secondary school generating a postcolonial, place-responsive, ecopedagogy framework. The project, dubbed the "EcoTardis" by the research group, is made up of the author-researcher, two school teachers, the student Environment Team and a pod of students in an elective class. This paper depicts how a small intergenerational research group configures the process of making sense of the state of our planet, in our local places, through transdisciplinary school learning. The research process takes place over at least one school year to allow time and reflective space for the iterative PAR process of planning, acting-observing, reflecting and planning anew. The project has now morphed into a 'pilot' elective subject, initially running for one term, developing our place-responsive ecopedagogy framework within the temporal constrictions of a school timetable. In the process of dreaming this into being, the importance of local Indigenous knowledge and stories has come to the fore, as well as the role of the more-than-human members of the local community as explored through arts-based methodologies, engendering ecoliteracy, ecophilia, ecojustice, and emplacing the notion of ecological consciousness. Weaving through the lived, embodied, material, messy and profound assemblages in the project thus far, this paper expounds the early insights in transforming education research ecopedagogically.