The road to Newman

We have arrived in Newman in the Pilbara and I will give you a glimpse of the trip up here. For those who don't know Newman is 1186km from Perth and is in the heart mining.

Trucks: our car looking out

Once past Wubin, the road up north belongs to road trains. Wubin is on the interface between cropping country and station country, uncleared grazing land. The road trains are feeding the mining boom up north carrying all sorts of weird and wonderful payloads from food to ammonium nitrate to tankers of oil to
enormous pipes, concrete structures, one caterpillar track weighing 60 tonnes and tyres which are so wide they have pilot vehicles flashing before and after. Whole hillsides are being carved away in the production of metals like gold and tracks disappear off the highway chasing precious metals. Near White Wells they were cutting awaya hill with matchbox sized machinery, flashing lights and meccano set steel structures. The size is deceptive, the machinery is actually huge making the hillsides appear small until you see the drivers tiny cab perched up high. In stark contrast, we passed a big pond of water near the Ningham turnoff with a battalion of lovely black tailed native hens feeding in the shallows. They strutted off into deeper water as we drove past, their tails held high.

Main street Mt Magnet

We camped out of Mt Magnet at the Amphitheatre, in breakaway country

Breakaway with quartz base

It is ancient sedimentary red rock, worn and hollowed, with white quartz scattered on the lower slopes. Visitors to this spot had put the quartz rocks to good use, leaving messages on the flats between the outcrops. Scattered sage grey mulgas are the dominant vegetation, a few earl golden flowers wafting their heady scenton the breeze. Goats abound keeping the lower vegetation heavily grazed.

In the early morning a flock of little woodswallows swooped up and dived from rockface to sky and down to cluster in a rock hollow only to swoop up into the sky again, stretching their wings after a night of slumber.

Little woodswallows

While out walking I heard the distinctive call of the red capped robin, a strong 'tchek...tchek', but only saw the female. We came across a party of white-browed babblers which also are distinctive with their churring and wheezing chatter as they forage in family groups close to the ground. They always sound like they are having fun following one another in the shrubbery along inland watercourses (waterless usually of course).

The Amphitheatre: our car is the white dot in the middle distance

Gold was found at Mt Magnet in 1891 by George Woodley which initiated white settlement in this area. Aboriginal use of this area goes back thousands of years. The Hill 50 Gold Mine 'Harmony' operation is visible from the Warramboo Lookout. This mine is a large open cut with underground workings as well. The Checkers Gold Mill was completed in 1989 and milled it's millionth ounce in 1997. It is still operating.

Hill 50 Gold mine 'Harmony' in distance

Close up on suburbia

Today we made it to the Fremantle Arts Centre and finally took in Shaun Tan's Suburban Odyssey. It was well worth the trip. There was a selection of his suburban paintings and drawings on show. The drawings show some of his method of working when brainstorming ideas for his stories. Up close there is a lot of detail that is not obvious when viewing images of his paintings. Some of his paintings had plaster on board, building up texture  and often combined with a collage type layering of canvas or angular layers of card giving extra depth to the buildings in his suburban street scenes. This was evident in Crows Fighting Behind a Supermarket, 1998. An image of this painting is on my previous blog - Odyssey to suburbia. The foreground had texture from the plaster and the buildings were layered up on top of each other. Totally unexpected and very effective, adding to the sense of crowded space.

I loved the triptych Dormitory Suburb, oil on board, 2001. Two large dark panels with a brighter smaller glimpse of suburbia in the middle with a weird structure foregrounded - shades of his weird and wonderful creatures in his illustrated stories. Endgame, a diptych shows the suburbs, the ubiquitous crows in the foreground, and roads curving out of sight. The second panel, not illustrated has a little window with wooden spars of a ship covered with birds up in the top corner - an example of the bizarre and unexpected delights that Tan is so well known for.

End Game, 1998, main panel

Some sections of his paintings had layers of transparent paint giving enormous depth and complexity to the colours, especially in the darker sections. This contrasted with the richer textures and colour with squiggles and sketchy lines - found in the more organic sections like the trees blowing in the wind. The foreground in his work North Beach had wild seaweedy texture to burn in rich ochres contrasting beautifully with the inky depths of the ocean. The seawall is beautifully rendered with textural plaster and paint. My notes from the exhibition say - texture, texture,texture.

North Beach, 1998

His paintings have a surreal quality to them, forcing a double take on how suburbia is viewed. I love his quirky Cloud painting up high directly on the wall, shown below.

Cloud, 2012, oil on wall

 Needless to say I loved his work. If you get the chance - go see it.

Salt

Salt affected land in the Jerramungup region

Salinisation of our farmland in our wheatbelt is a serious problem and has been for a considerable time. This week I watched A Million Acres a Year (directed by Frank Rijavec, 2002), a story of government endorsed clearing of land in the south west after the second World War. A million acres of virgin bushland was released for agriculture every year from 1959 to 1969, with little consideration as to whether the land was suitable for agriculture. This was done in the government interest to create new townships and industry, provide for returned servicemen, and make good use of 'valueless unproductive bush'. As part of the conditions the landholder was obliged to bulldoze and burn the bush or risk losing their land. The stories of the clearing and burning I always find hard to take - the native animals had nowhere to go - it is horrific to contemplate. As Kaye Vaux writes in her poem The 1980 Nightmare,

'Man had a dream in the 1950s.
the bush flattened on its back tanned in the sun ...
Sap hissed in tongues of flame.
Tiny creatures lost their souls
in great mushrooms of smoke higher than heaven.'

The farms were generally cleared with little left standing for animal shelter, windbreaks or species habitat. Landowners who wanted to keep some areas uncleared had an uphill battle to do so.

As exhibited at Riseborough Gallery in Gin Gin

This film reminded me of the series of small objects I made in response to the threats to biodiversity by salinisation. they are less than 100mm high and made from silk, metal and salt. Their shapes are derived from flowers found in the wheatbelt. According to ANZECC (2001) wheatbelt salinity has led to a 50% decrease in the number of wetland bird species and threatens around 450 plant species with extinction in this region.

In the film Don Cochrane states that it had been known for over 100 years that clearing natural vegetation caused dryland salinity and land degradation. In 1897 steam train drivers reported salinisation of water in catchments that had been cleared for farming. By 1951 the Public Works Department had recommended that clearing be banned in water supply catchments due to salinity problems. Despite this, War Service land was released in Jerramungup in 1953 and more generally land was released for agriculture from 1959. Three years of drought followed from 1969 eventually forcing many farmers off the land. I remember we had our first water restrictions in Perth then. Amazingly another 3 million hectares of land was planned to be released from 1979. However another three year drought beginning in 1981 put an end to that after 10% of south coast farms suffered from severe wind erosion. The state went from releasing land for agriculture to commencing landcare programs aimed at combating wind erosion and dryland salinity.

This tragic tale ends on a positive note as many local people and organisations realise that mistakes were made and try to halt the salt and land degradation. Typical of many landowners, Steve Newby explains 'in my case I feel I've got a responsibility to repair the damage that my family has done to this land before I finish with it'. The major fronts of attack on salinity are tree planting, drainage, growing perennial pastures, fencing of remnant vegetation and planting affected land with salt tolerant perennials like saltbush. At the end the film-makers acknowledge the Noongar people whose tribal country the film depicts and 'whose story is yet to be told'. They managed the land for thousands of years within a stable ecosystem of amazing diversity. In just 200 years settler society has wrought enormous changes to the land. there is a huge amount of work to be done to re-establish a sustainable, healthy and diverse landscape where all stakeholders are valued

For a few years I grew trees and planted them on farms as part of the Men of the Trees Farm Tree Help Scheme and also volunteered in their nursery. The nursery grows a huge variety of plants for major revegetation projects. I love going back to planting sites some years after to see how much the trees have grown. Immediately after the planting it looks like you have done virtually nothing, the plants are so tiny. I remember just after 4000 trees had been planted, the farmer whose trees they were exclaimed 'What have I done!' I can fully understand his horror. But, it is amazing what grows even in the most abysmal year when the crops shrivel up, the native plants hang on.

Established eucalyptus plantation on a Tenterden farm with salt affected land 

Link to salinity map for much of the south west here

Stitching the land

Here are some prints I have been working and experimenting on. They are a kind of experimental visual diary as I try to find a language to express my ideas. I have been playing with collographs, mostly intaglio, embossing and stitching. I like the idea of doing things to the prints in the same way as we do things to the landscape - both constructive and destructive - as well as the simply looking at the landscape. These are mostly very small prints apart from the Tenterden prints, and mostly just printed on cartridge paper. It is a bit of a change from my usual textile work which I will document here over time.

Farmscape and Stirlings

Intaglio collograph with stitch

Remnant landscape: Stirlings

Relief collograph, stitch, leaf

Hillside

Intaglio collograph with stitch

Night sky and Stirling Ranges

Intaglio collograph with stitch

 Remnant landscape: hillside

Intaglio and relief collograph and stitched leaf

I have been looking at the farming landscape in reference to our role in clearing the land, what has been lost, the damage large scale clearing has done to the ecoscape, and the difficulty in finding a balance between agricultural needs (food, wool, timber, leather etc), preventing further ecosystem damage (salinity, erosion, loss of soil fertility etc) and finding equitable ways to repair the whole system. The farmer/landholder can't do it all by themselves. Some of my themes are traces, tracks, fences, colonisation, restoration.

Tenterden tracks and traces

Intaglio collograph, stitch and piercings

Tenterden plantation

Intaglio collograph as yet unstitched

The Tenterden prints relate to a property where the owner has replanted areas of unproductive paddock with plantation timbers. the leaves on the printing block are from these trees. There are a number of salt and freshwater swamps/winter lakes he is trying to protect on his property.

Too blue

This was the inlet today, a beautiful sunny winter day.

Sparkling.

Cormorants

in liquid silhouette

On the move

Now that we've had some good winter rains, huge flocks of birds are patrolling the farm paddocks feasting on the plentiful food to be found. There have been a few white ibis around here for some time but in the last week flocks of straw necked ibis with their glossy iridescent black wings have been seen wheeling through the sky in 'V' formation then landing and working the paddocks for insects. They will be seen feeding in the paddocks for months from now, going well into spring. I must admit I don't know where the ibis go to when they disappear later in the year.

Part of a flock of straw necked ibis

Another fantastic sight is the black swans feeding in paddocks. Previously we'd see them in selected spots on the inlet, their long necks curving down into the water as they fed on underwater vegetation. Their beautiful bright red beaks a rich contrast against their black plumage. Now they flaunt themselves in the paddocks, occasionally stretching their wings to reveal the stark white wing flash. Going past the inlet today there were only a few swans to be seen on the silvery waters.

Black swans feeding 

The black swan, Cygnus atratus,  is the only swan in the world that is predominantly black. I am so glad they are still plentiful. To me they have always seemed special. A few years ago we were camped at an inland lake that had a number of swans making the most of the plentiful water. All night long we heard the magical sound of the swans - a surround sound of musical bugling as they called to each other across the lake. All the more beautiful when you are out in the desert - so unexpected.

Black swans clearly showing their red beaks

Cattle are the most commonly seen animal in the paddocks around here. These are fairly late calves as calving generally starts in late summer. Mostly it's beef cattle with a few hardy/efficient/enterprising dairy farms still operating in this region. There has been a gradual change from dairy to beef cattle farming in this district. We live on what was once a cattle farm - subdivision for housing is now more lucrative than farming especially close to town.

Calves under the karri

Couldn't resist this - mobs of roos are quite a common sight in paddocks too - they are here all year round sharing the paddocks with the cattle and the birds.

Small mob of roos with peppermint trees behind

Just as the birds migrate from one area to another so to do the humans. Winter is a time when a portion of the population down here head up north to the warmer weather. We will be doing the same, heading north during my uni break till we hit the warmer weather. Next weekend we are heading up to the Pilbara for a month. So I will be posting from whenever I can manage it - access to communications and power permitting. The towns will be fine but when we are camped out in the sticks - ?? I'll find out.

Textiles part two

Here are some more images from the exhibition currently on show at the Butter Factory Studios till 13th June. The works were created entirely by Denmark artists and community. They are the result of the community performance project Solace + Yearning: Between Kwoorabup and Denmark which was performed along the Kwoorabup/Denmark River back in March. The project explored a shared longing to connect to the natural world and the complexities of our shared histories since colonisation.

Costume

Performer Adrian Baer

Fabrics by Heather Coombes

Constructed by Yvonne Quinn

The striking central motif is from the contact dye of the bloodroot an unassuming plant growing in the lower lying areas around Denmark.

Installation the washing scene

Text on the basin S + Y words to Row, row, row your boat

Costume
Performer Nikki Green
Fabrics by Bev Seeney, Annie Usher
Constructed by Jennifer Barter

Costume

Performer Toby Boaden

Fabrics by Sarah Martin, Bev Seeney

Constructed by Sarah Martin

Winter voice

The Festival of Voice took over Denmark last weekend, a long weekend that entices people from Perth and around the south west. The performers come from all over the place. There was a lot of music going on - performances, singing and writing workshops, choirs, poets and street happenings. To cap it off, after all the rain during the week, the sun shone brilliantly all weekend.

Just to give you a taste here are some links to the sounds going down.

Spooky Men of the West with Stephen Tavener performing We are the Spooky Men.

The sounds of contemporary A capella trio, Aluka,  performing Shadow with their trademark intricate harmonies.  Sally Mortensen, Annabelle Tunley and Rachel Head formed the Melbourne based band in 2008.

Valanga Khosa tells stories of his life growing up in South Africa between his songs sung to his traditional instrumentalism. He now lives in Australia. I just love the kalimba (thumb piano) and his humour.

And for something completely different , the poetry of Kate Wilson. Here she is performing Reflection.

Hope you enjoy the selection.

Textiles at the Butter Factory

As I said previously, I was helping to set up an exhibition last week. It is an exhibition of textiles, photographs and a film from Solace + Yearning: Between Kwoorabup and Denmark. The exhibition is being held at the Old Butter Factory Studios in Denmark and is part of the Festival of Voice Fringe. Despite the cold and rain there was a good turnout at the opening last weekend. Here are some images taken in the Butter Factory. It was great to see the costumes in a gallery context.

All the textiles were dyed with natural materials found in the area. They were the result of a weekend workshop spent steaming and simmering silk and wool with bark, leaves and flowers and a variety of mordants. The costumes were worn in the performances of  S + Y earlier in the year.

Costume
Performer Sonia Dezius
 Fabrics by Catherine de Vos, Bev Seeney
 Constructed by Sarah Martin
Performance image by Michael Hemmings

Installation on  karri bark by Annette Carmichael
Text by Nicola-Jane le Breton

The text on the bark is the words that were written on the bridge 

'With less gravity

on this steady spinning world

we can hover somewhere between

tree and cloud

matching our footprints

 to leaf prints that

solder earth to sky'

Farming the land installation
 Costume
Performer Nigel Levinson
Fabrics by Heather Coombes, Annie Usher, Janine McCrum
Constructed by Janine McCrum
Performance image by Michael Hemmings

Close up of costume vest

Knots of history installation and the Margit

Costumes 

Performers from right Phillip G Light; Toby Boaden

Fabrics by Jennifer Barter; Sarah Martin, Bev Seeney

Constructed by Yvonne Quinn; Sarah Martin

Performance image by Michael Hemmings

Costumes

Performers Catherine Mercer; Christine Ritter; Janine McCrum

Fabrics by Sheila Ayling, Annie Usher; Robyn Lees; Janine McCrum

Constructed by Annie Usher, Annette Carmichael; Annie Usher; Janine McCrum

                                                             Back view of costumes




 Here are some images from the performance to help put the exhibition and costumes in their original context.

Bridge scene

Knots of history

Paddock dance

I touch the river

'Oaks' by the 'Creek'

Following on from yesterday's post I had to share this early morning with you. The location is Armstrong Creek in Northern Territory east of Docker River (on the WA/NT border). It is found between the Gibson Desert to the north and the Great Victoria Desert to the south.

'River gums' Eucalyptus camaldulensis in the 'creek'

The 'creek' was a wide bed of pinky orange gritty sand, with a pool of water downstream from our campsite, near the main road. It had a few small sand dunes nearby on which the desert oaks grew. We camped overnight in a thicket of acacia between the creek and the dunes. The stars were bright in the clear sky with scorpio swinging overhead. Before dawn we cooked a quick cuppa to warm and fortify ourselves against the cold before we headed out. The morning brought a typical desert sunrise - rich gold and indigo sky - icy cold - my hands could hardly operate the camera. But it is always worth it, to experience the awakening of the morning, to hear and feel and see it.

'Desert oaks' Allocasuarina decaisneana in the morning light

There were black faced butcher birds calling, their melodic call ringing through the stillness. Chattering yellow throated miners alternated between feeding on the nectar of the golden grevilleas and sunning themselves in the tree tips once the red gold orb of the sun had peeked over the horizon. This was a haven for parrots as well: they loved the aged river gums growing in the creekline. We saw and heard port lincoln parrots, pink and gray galahs and corellas with beautiful pale pink bellies. The river gums are a fantastic resource for birds, providing nesting hollows, nectar and a plentiful supply of insects.

Flowers of the 'corkwood' Hakea lorea

The 'desert oaks' bear no resemblance at all to the European oak but they do have a wonderful grain in their timber which is reminiscent of their namesake. The trees grow very slowly, becoming large and spreading in maturity, some apparently aged over 1000 years. Its deeply fissured corky bark protects the trees from fire as does the bark of the 'corkwood', Hakea lorea. These desert regions never cease to amaze me and I keep on going back. I remember reading Nicholas Rothwell and he or someone commented that the red centre captures your heart and you have to keep going back. I think it's true.

Hidden down a rough track

This area is near the border of WA hidden on the edge of the ranges near Giles/Warakurna. Permits from the Aboriginal Lands Trust are required to travel through this region belonging to the Ngaanyatjarra people. There are a number of old, eroded, but colourful rocky ranges surrounding Giles/Warakurna, the Rawlinson Range to the west and the Schwerin Mural Crescent to the east. The little dot on the map denoting the Giles weather station hides a place of great beauty. I was blown away by the richness and ancientness of the land, and the luminous 'watercolour' light painting the landscape. 

Giles Pinnacle in the Schwerin Mural Crescent

Surrounding the hills are red sandplains covered in hard spinifex hummocks, their flower spikes waving gold, providing a bumper crop of seed for the zebra finches, budgies, spinifex pigeons and other wildlife. In the gullies grow the beautiful river red gums, further out are the smaller acacia (ironwood) and hakea (corkwood) trees while the  Allocasuarina decaisneana (desert oak) thrives in the red dune country. The parallel dunes trace the direction of the prevailing winds, creating a drawing of subtle wind shifts around the hills when reading a map of the region.

Desert oak with red sand dune behind, north of  Schwerin Mural Crescent

At the base of the dunes grow these beautiful grevilleas, a haven for all sorts of honeyeaters, feeding and calling, flying from shrub to shrub. The flowers drip with sweet nectar.

The track to Gill Pinnacle is cryptic and very rough following a natural drainage line. These lovely pinky purple Ptilotus covered the ground on the way in.

Ptilotus

Gill Pinnacle is a landmark hill very close to Gordon Springs at the base of the Schwerin Range.Iconic white trunked gums grow at the base of the hills. There was a small pool of water Gordon Springs with water seeping in from cracks in the rocks. Blanket ferns and rock ferns grow here along with mosses and liverworts. Native fig trees, and higher up, callitris trees cling to the rocky hillside. There were plenty of birds here. We saw the usual plenitude of honeyeaters plus black faced cuckoos shrikes feeding on insects on the trees in the gully and spinifex pigeons displaying on the higher rocky slopes. We even saw a lovely bower bird, but found no bowers even though we looked.

Looking towards Gill Pinnacle from Gordon Springs

Looking toward Gordon Springs

Growing among the white gums in the creekline were sandalwood trees, with blue grey foliage, recovering from obvious camel predation. Late in the afternoon we watched small woodswallows swooping and diving above the gully pool.

Seepage above Gordon Springs

This image clearly shows the rocky nature of the ranges. Below the eroded peak is the clearly defined spinifex slope, below which grows gnarly acacia, hakea, callitris and other hardy shrubs. The photograph is taken from a drainage line which falls into Gordon Springs.

Looking up to Gill Pinnacle from the ledge above Gordon Springs

In the evening and early mornings the ranges are transformed into another palette of colours. It is worth the effort to rise early and face the chilly morning air to experience it.

Schwerin Mural Crescent in the evening light

Wispy sunrise at Gordon Springs looking south towards mulga (acacia) trees