The inaugural edition of Galah Magazine was released in November - a publication celebrating creative living in country Australia. Inside you will find "Family Farm” - a map of a small plot of my Mum and Dad’s land, and an accompanying story. I’m thrilled to have my drawing sharing space with painters, dreamers, gardeners and storytellers. Having grown up in country Australia myself, it’s a delight to see such a celebration of the country’s creative side. I couldn’t see it so clearly when I was a kid living out on our cattle station in south-west Queensland, but now I can look back and see that I was surrounded by art and ingenuity - and the experience of that life on the land led me to where I am now - making maps.
Look out for the next edition of Galah Magazine - it’s a beautiful publication
The Family Farm.
I created this map of our family farm at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range when it and I had just met. At my first visit I thrilled at this compact undulating land of hill, valley and meandering creek, and set out to get to know it over many days, exploring, recording and drawing.
Abundant texture, line, and shape intersect and overlap as a intricate artwork. I traced the pathways - creek, gully, animal track, road and fence. A discovery of a hidden fern valley and tiny waterfall appears at the the western corner of the page. Caves punctuate a hill - big enough to crouch in. Evidence inside that they are favourite siesta spots for roos and wallabies. As I surveyed the stands of trees I recorded their scatterings, lingering longer at the older sentinels. Methodically I drew the patterns and connections. Laid over the rooted and eroded are the transient parts - paw prints, the homes of the water dragons, goannas and eagles. A sprinkling of significant personal stories make up the final layer - like where Buzz is buried, and the place where Snuffy the possum sleeps in his paint tin full of nails.
The combination of the parts is an interwoven story of the world that lives on our family farm, a tale of a place that photos and words could not tell. The drawing pays respect to all things - the plants and animals that inhabit, and the events which have occurred here that make it a home for my family. Strangely it is not a place that any of us live, but it’s where we all gather to be together. We have always been country people and this place retains that connection to open space - soil, sky and freedom of movement. A place to belong.
Years have passed since the making of this drawing. I have explored much more, and an updated map would be bigger - packed full of many more observations and events. My visits over the years have gifted me the delight found in returning to the same patch of soil many times over. To see a flood and drought, the water dragons disappear and then return, the grasses take hold and seed. Last year the discovery of a patch of wild orange trees at the base of a lantana hill, surrounded in a cloud of white caper butterflies, and the splendid blue wrens visiting often for a butterfly feast. We sampled the rounded fruit - which tasted like passionfruit with a bitter aftertaste. I wondered how I’d not noticed these trees before.
I continue to store in my memory the new discoveries and adventures, and as the farm and I become more familiar with each other I wonder how different its new map will look. One of these days I will seek that answer.
