In 2017, I became a Community Partner in the New Landscapes Institute’s The Long Paddock project.
The New Landscapes Institute has spent the past two years collaborating with artists and architects exploring the significance of the Travelling Stock Routes (TSRs) – public lands that weave across NSW (and other states); traditional routes for the movement of livestock from farm to market or during times of drought. The resulting works will be shown at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery between 6 May – 17 July 2017.
As part of the bigger project, audio interviews are being gathered with a wide range of contemporary users of TSRs, from drovers and graziers, to bush walkers, bird watchers, campers and those with broader environmental and cultural heritage interests, archiving memories of the TSRs and their value in the past, present and future.
As a Community Partner in The Long Paddock, I’ve been undertaking community engagement in the Central West of NSW (within 200 hundred kilometres of Dubbo), seeking talent for these interviews, as well as doing the recordings.
On 24 and 25 March, I drove New Landscape Institute’s Joni Taylor 635km across the Central West conducting interviews and hearing the stories of TSR users in preparation for The Long Paddock’s May opening in Wagga.
Many thanks to Dr Tim Hosking, Peter Peckham, Kieren Sunderland, Janis Hosking, Les Trindall and Hamish Thompson for their time, passion and knowledge on this subject.
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