Kangaroo Paw Migration

I found these ‘migrating’ Kangaroo Paw buds on the ground in my parents’ orchard in Albany (Kinjarling), WA, near where my 94-year-old dad had recently tripped and broken his hip. When I was a child in Albany the town still had a thriving whaling industry. In 1978 the harpooning ceased, and today, good numbers of once-critically-endangered humpbacks migrate north annually from Antarctica, often stopping to rest in Albany’s King George Sound. The humpbacks tend to pass by in three waves: healthy cows with year-old calves, healthy bulls, and slower, older or sick whales.

From Legacy, exhibited @ 44 in Rozelle, NSW, July 2025

The works in this exhibition became a means for me to navigate the emotional complexities of being far from my ageing parents in Albany (Kinjarling), Western Australia (the town where I grew up) as my father’s health declined. Over the past two years I’ve been a frequent visitor to my parents’ home. Just before Dad died in March, I found myself lapping the garden and the orchard, and reflecting on the legacies we inherit, the ones we shape, and what we leave behind for each other. There are 3 sets of works in Legacy: ‘Super Six’ Roses, Making-do, and Kangaroo Paw Migration.

Kangaroo Paw Migration, 2024

Diptych, two pure pigment digital prints on cotton rag $800

83.5 x 135 cm (incl. 8cm gap between prints)