Curiosity to discover more about our water stories, has led down many tracks in the steps of those who walked before me. Questions emerge not only about water but also how we respond to the land. My works asks for a renewed look at our landscape.

It has been argued that our modern highways and roads across Australia are replicating he tracks and song lines of Aboriginal Peoples including the famous route across the Nullarbor and the highway between the Kimberley and Darwin so I know my journeys across the country were on ancient tracks laid down a long time ago.

On my first Pilbara visit in the mid 70’s, I recall feeling I was on another planet. I climbed a mesa to encounter a vast landscape covered in spinifex and rock. Marvelling that our first peoples lived and survived in this harsh hot country cemented my respect for those that journeyed before me and my curiosity was sparked. Into whose footsteps had I stepped in the cooler havens of the Pilbara River system now amassed with birds?

In the steamy weather of the hot season my first visit to the Kimberley coast in 1980 left indelible memories of long beaches strewn with shell . Returning to the Kimberley many times I visited places as far north as I could go, including Warmun (Gija Country) the Lennard River (Bunuba Country) the Martuwarra (Gooniyandi Country)), and to where the Ord, King, Durack, and Pentecost Rivers combine to enter the Cambridge Gulf. (The traditional lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung Peoples.)

We have learned more of the Aboriginal place names with time, where once only the European names prevailed, and incrementally my understanding of the land and the stories grew. I knew I was not just painting country. In many ways the process I was immersed in was akin to an archaeological dig. I am sifting through the layers, observing, and researching as I walk these tracks; uncovering stories held in the land and thinking about who walked this track before me.

I also delved too into the journals of the explorers revered for their courage taking on the unknown, to discover how water was found. These journals invariably show they took along Aboriginal helpers whose knowledge of country and skills in finding water was considered invaluable.

This collection TRACKS finds early exploration was not only seeking fresh water but also established wells across the country for those who would follow along behind and allowed us to find where rivers rise until we arrive on the Kimberly coast.

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