Paxart - Photos

Sunsets and the Beautiful Dead

Bring this exhibition to you!

Sunsets & the Beautiful Dead

Artist Caroline Ellis Latest works

SHAG Presents Touring in 2009
Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery end 26th April

Robinvale: 13th May- 15th June Artist talk to be announced

Kerang Library Exhibition Space: 16th June-12th July Opening and Presentation by DSE TBA

In this new body of work, Caroline has depicted a stressed landscape. Silhouettes of dead trees with dramatic sunsets celebrate beauty in death and call for further understanding of the environmental issues this region is facing. Heavily impastoed oil paintings, pastel drawings and photographs make up this exhibition.

Please read on (open attached document) for more detail on environmental issues and more images.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information or visit my website to view more images www.carolineellisart.com

Regards,
Caroline Ellis
Ph: 03 5457 9191 Mobile 0408 500 451

General Description Of The Local Environment
Pre European settlement this area support significant numbers of Indigenous people, over a very long period of time.

This highlights this area containing numerous waterways and wetlands was highly productive. Aboriginal people had a strong philosophy of "caring for Mother Earth" and only taking what was needed ensuring that it would remain productive into the future.

This area only receives minimal rainfall (13 inches) and the season and years are highly variable so indigenous people were mobile and took advantage of the good seasons and utilised other areas in other times (ie Mallee). This very flat floodplain contains a network of creeks, rivers and different types of wetlands, many of the wetlands were seasonal, and flooded during wet winter/springs and many dried out over the very hot summers.

Native animals were adapted to this and survived in deeper holes in the rivers and lakes, until they re-flooded again in subsequent years.

European Settlement
Early settlers initially establish large stations throughout the area and introduced large numbers of domesticated stock. The highly variable "Boom & Bust" nature of this area made grazing difficult as the feed supply altered significantly and there was no reliable water supply.

European settlers began to manipulate the natural waterways and wetlands over 150 years ago, trying to direct water into lakes to provide a more reliable stock and domestic water supply. Many wetlands had their natural outlet blocked off, or raised, which changed these treed shallow swamps into deeper more permanent lakes drowning the majority of the trees.

“Last Days” Lake Charm, trees on the edge falling over from erosion around their roots.

Even though many of the wetlands had been altered they soon began develop new environmental values, some created an environment that favoured more water dependant plants and animals such as fish and waterbirds. The important of the wetlands in the Kerang/Swan Hill area is there are many different wetland types in close proximity to each other.

Irrigation Development
It became very evident that these fertile floodplain soils would grow terrific pastures and crops if irrigation water was applied. The initial manipulation of the waterways to secure stock and domestic water was further enhanced and water was diverted off the Murray River to provide reliable irrigation water to farmland.

These early attempts of flood irrigation were very crude and not very efficient, therefore much of the applied water seeped through into the underlying groundwater system. Groundwater levels began to rise dramatically in the early 1900's and they dissolved stored salts in the sub soil. The salts that were distributed deep in the soil profile were "Cyclic Salts" that accumulated over a very long period of time deriving from the minute quantities contained in rain but also from washing out of the upper catchment areas and carried down in floodwaters, re-depositing them within the floodplain subsoils.

The combination of ponding water permanently in the natural waterways, inefficient irrigation techniques, poor drainage and a series of very wet years (50's and 70's) resulted in a dramatic rise in groundwater levels. This salinised many of the low lying areas, killing many salt sensitive native plants such as Box and Gum trees. Saline groundwater even began seeping into the deeper wetlands and salinising the water or the wetland floor.

“Water Table Trouble” as described, thousands of trees dead at Koorangie, Kerang Marshes

The saline groundwater beneath this area is also caused by the clearing of the upper Loddon Catchment. Ancient underground river systems that have been in-filled over time (ie The Loddon Deep Lead) carry water and salts from the upper catchment entering the deeper groundwater systems beneath this area.

Some of the brackish to saline wetlands throughout this district are very productive and contain salt tolerant native plants (ie Sea Tassel), water bugs etc that attract thousands of waterbirds (ie Lake Cullen or Lake Tutchewop). So even though they may be saline, they are also important environmentally and provide feeding, resting places for different bird species than the ones found using freshwater wetlands.

Currently the long extend dry period, combined with reduced irrigation has allowed the groundwater system to drop dramatically. If conditions remain dry these watertables will remain low however wet flood years will see an increase in groundwater levels that will impact our wetlands. It is predicted that high saline groundwater levels are unlikely rise to the same extent as they did in the 1970's due to the significant improvements in water management (irrigation practices and improved drainage).

Current Challenges
There is likely to be less water available for both environment and agriculture into the future. It is socially and economically important to maintain a product, viable irrigation industry. However to achieve this the current irrigation distribution system needs become more efficient to ensure inevitable increases in water pricing does not force farmers out of their industry.

There is also a need to balance this with preserving the key environmentally significant wetlands as they too are very important socially and economically. Some of the deep permanent lakes that provide high recreational use generate many millions of dollars in the local community (ie Lake Boga, Lake Charm).

“Where has all the water gone?” Current drought conditions has seen the popular recreation lake Lake Boga totally dry up.

Text By: Rob O'Brien
Senior Environmental Officer
Department of Primary Industries, Kerang
(03) 5450 9559, 0418 353 816

Paintings By Caroline Ellis

More on the theme

“For All the Cows” Lake Tutcheywop
This paining is about the salt interception scheme. The salty irrigation run off from the dairy industry up stream is feed into Tutcheywop to store the salt & avoid it getting into the Murray River, turning a freshwater lake into a hypo saline lake. Photocopies from “Kerang Wetlands Ramsar Site” Management Plan, DSE are used in the exhibition to describe accurately the issues I have taken inspiration from. Stay tuned for “Lake Tutcheywop Fights Back” when Tutcheywop refuses to “salt up”, the base of the lake allows water and its salts to filter back into the watertable and into the Murray.

“Just a Trickle” During the very hot summer water was let down the Meran, Niemen & Wakool Rivers for irrigation supply. As the fresh water mixed with the stagnant pools left in the rivers a toxic sludge was formed which killed a lot of large fish. Recent newspaper articles accompany this painting.

“Water, Water Everywhere & Not a Drop to Drink”. These “Dead Tree Graveyards” are in “discharge” areas commonly found in the valley of sand dunes where water pools, once a refreshing drink for the trees, now a killer as the salty water table raises & takes more victims. Please refer “Watertable Trouble”.