Due to construction, Museum parking may be limited at the time of your visit. Look for additional parking in free or metered spaces along nearby streets.
Back to Collection

Mandy Martin: Environmental Projects

CAE1512

Summary Note

This archive consists of a suite of six collaborative environmental art projects organized by painter Mandy Martin from 1995 through 2005. Materials include correspondence, slides, exhibition ephemera, photographs, digital images, and research materials.

Biographical Note

The archive consists of a suite of Australian projects included the work of many artists, scientists and writers listed below, but the principal organizer and fundraiser is the painter Mandy Martin, one of Australia’s foremost environmental artists with works depicting the diversity of the Australian landscape with an intelligent awareness of conservation issues. Her works are held in many public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia who have her full archive, most state collections and regional galleries. In the USA she is represented in the Guggenheim Museum New York, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum have acquired her complementing environmental art project archive and her work is represented in many private collections. She has a wide audience for her art and has given extensive lectures and writings about the land and environmental issues. Her artwork has been included in the NSW secondary school curriculum for many years. She lives on the land in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia.

Scope and Content

This archive consists of a suite of collaborative environmental art projects organized by painter Mandy Martin from 1995 through 2005. They are unique not only to Australia, but also more globally in that the participating scientists and writers were also asked to make art.

The projects begin with Tracks: Back O’Bourke, done in 1995-1996. This was an environmental study that took place in the north western portion of the state of New South Wales, Australia, known as the Western Division. It is an area that represents almost half of the entire state. Martin created all the artworks, and historian Paul Sinclair from Melbourne University contributed an essay. Martin engaged the grazier and conservationist Guy Fitzhardinge as an environment consultant (and he subsequently became her husband). Peter Haynes curated the exhibition and coordinated its tour around Australia.

Watersheds: The Paroo to the Warrego in 1998-1999, was an environmental study that focused on the upper part of the Murray-Darling Basin catchment, The Paroo and Warrego Rivers, whose headwaters are in the Carnarvon Range in the central part of the state of Queensland, Australia. The study is based on an art project by painter Mandy Martin, who engaged the historian and writer Tom Griffiths and environmental consultant Guy Fitzhardinge.

Inflows: The Channel Country in 2001 was the third project that focused on The Channel Country of the Lake Eyre Basin. The Basin includes large parts of the state of South Australia, the Northern Territory and the state of Queensland; as well as a small part of the western portion of the state of New South Wales. Also, a focus of the project was Coopers Creek, which lies in North Rivers region in the state of New South Wales. The project examined the watershed upstream of the Lake Eyre ephemeral lake basin and to assist in this journey, the South African historian Jane Carruthers joined the team of Mandy Martin, Guy Fitzhardinge and Tom Griffiths. As with each of these three projects, Martin’s paintings alluded strongly to—and sometimes quoted in the paintings themselves—the 19th century explorers of the region. Tracks, Watersheds and Inflows were like one continuous project where much of the research and field work overlapped and flowed one right into the other.

Land$cape: Gold & Water in 2002 was a major expansion of the project design, a large-group collaborative and interdisciplinary project among writers and artists that produced an exhibition and book combining art and text. It focused on the Cadia Hill Gold Mine, owned by Newcrest Mining Limited and located on 10,000 hectares of natural habitat and agricultural land alongside the Belubula River, in the Lachlan River catchment, part of Murray Darling Basin in the southeastern portion the state of New South Wales. It is also adjacent to the property owned by the artist and her husband.

The artists engaged in the project were: Marty Huehner, Meg Buchanan, Mandy Martin, John Chappell, John Reid, George Main, Peggy Spratt, Wendy Teakel, Ken Hutchinson, Meta Rothery, Belinda Jessup, Lex Beardsell, Naomi Greschke, Sarah Ryan, Nicola Dickson, Penny Stott, Matt Higgins, Gerry Payne, and Oscar Blyth.
The writers engaged in the project were: Mandy Martin, John Chappell, Guy Fitzhardinge, George Main, and Sarah Ryan. Curator Peter Haynes organized the exhibition, which toured to four art centers.

The Lachlan: Blue-Gold in 2003 was a subsequent project dealing with further issues of the Lachlan and water use, that took place in the southeastern portion the state of New South Wales. It also was a collaborative effort done by artists and writers that include: William Bennett & Rebecca Dowling, John Chappell, Nicola Dickson, Melissa Egan, Trish Freeman, Gabrielle Heywood, Matt Higgins, Ken Hutchinson, Belinda Jessup, Jessica Leskela, Mandy Martin, Joy McCann, Nazanin Moradi, Bridget Nicholson, Kirstie Rea, John Reid, Sarah Ryan, Marzena Wasikowska, Carolyn Young, Sara Beavis, John Chappell and Sarah Ryan. The project resulted in an exhibition, catalog and was included, along with Land$capes, in a final presentation by Mandy Martin and Trisha Carroll called, Absence and Presence Sept.. 9-10, 2005.

Strata: Deserts Past Present and Future was an environmental art project about a Significant Place, that was focused in the area of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. A project, book, and exhibition from 2005, again expanded the project design by including Aboriginal artists and community members. It focused on diverse kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing place, in this case Puritjarra, a rock shelter in the Cleland Hills, about seven hours west of Alice Springs by vehicle. It is part of the country of the people of the Ikuntji/ Haasts Bluff community, and the site of extremely significant archaeological finds in the 1980s.

Indigenous knowledge depends on country—country is the context for knowledge and the place where knowledge is significant. Western science, by contrast, typically differentiates between the knowing and the place- in many cases, it seeks knowledge systems, Indigenous, scientific and artistic. By locating both ways of knowing in a common place the project sought to create a co-understanding. An exhibition of art works from all the artists associated with Strata was curated by Tim Rollason at the Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, 18-24 July 2005.

The artists engaged in the project were: Mandy Martin, Narputta Nangala Jugadai, Daisy Napaltjarri Jugadai, Molly Napaltjarri Jugadai, Anmanari Napanangka Nolan, Eunice Napanangka Jack, Colleen Napanangka Kantawarra, Alice Nampitjinpa, Linda Ngitjanka Naparulla, Guy Fitzhardinge, Jake Gillen, Libby Robin, Mike Smith. The writers engaged in the project were: Libby Robin, Mandy Martin, Mike Smith, Guy Fitzhardinge, Jake Gillen. Some of Martin’s paintings from this project were included in the earlier 2003 exhibition organized by the Australian National University, Lachlan: Blue-Gold.

Materials include correspondence, slides, exhibition ephemera, photographs, digital images, and research materials.

Arrangement

Mandy Martin: Environmental Projects is organized into six series based upon project.
  • Series 1: Tracks: Back O’Bourke
  • Series 2: The Paroo to the Warrego
  • Series 3: Inflows: The Channel Country
  • Series 4: Land$cape: Gold & Water
  • Series 5: The Lachlan: Blue-Gold
  • Series 6: Strata: Deserts Past

Inclusive Dates

Original Date 1848-2012

Bulk Dates

1995-2005

Quantity / Extent

2 cubic feet

Language

English

Related Archive Collections

  • CAE1109 Mandy Martin: Desert Channels CAE1108 Libby Robin: Desert Channels CAE1302 Desert Lake: The Paruku Project

Related Publications

Freemantle Arts Center, We Don’t Need a Map: A Martu Experience of the Western Desert. Fremantle, W.A., AU: Fremantle Arts Centre, 2012.

Haynes, Roslynn D. Seeking the Centre: The Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film. Cambridge, U.K.; New York, N.Y., Cambridge University Press, 1998.

La Fontaine, Monique, and John Carty, eds. Ngurra Kuju Walyja: One Country, One People: Stories from the Canning Stock Route. South Yarra, Vic., AU: MacMillan Arts Publishing, 2011.

Mahood, Kim. Craft for a Dry Lake. Sydney, N.S.W.; New York, N.Y.: Anchor Book, 2000.

Martin, Mandy, Ed. Land$cape: Gold & Water. Environment Studio, Australian National University, 2003.

Martin, Mandy, Libby Robin, and Mike Smith. Strata: Deserts Past, Present and Future: An Environmental Art Project about a Significant Place. Mandurama, NSW, Australia: Mandy Martin, 2005.

Martin, Mandy, and Sarah Ryan, Eds. The Lachlan: Blue-Gold. Canberra ACT: Environment Studio, National Institute of the Arts, Australian National University, 2003.

Martin, Mandy. Environmental Projects: Tracts: Back O’Bourke; Watersheds: The Paroo to the Warrego; Inflows: The Channel Country. Environment Studio, Australian National University, 2001.

Morton, Steve, Mandy Martin, Kim Mahood, and John Carty, eds. Desert Lake: Art, Science and Stories from Paruku. Collingwood, Vic. AU: CSIRO Publishing, 2013.

Myers, Fred, M. Painting Culture: The Making of Aboriginal High Art. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002.

National Museum of Australia, Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route. Canberra, A.C.T., AU: National Museum of Australia Press, 2010.

Robin, Libby, Christopher R. Dickman, and Mandy Martin, Eds. Desert Channels: The Impulse to Conserve. Collingwood, Vic., AU: CSIRO Publishing, 2010.

Container Listing by Series:

CAE1512/1 Series 1: Tracks: Back O’Bourke, Original Date 1848-1998

Series 1 contains materials relating to, Tracks: Back O’Bourke, which is the first installment of an environmental project series. This project took place between 1995 and 1996, when Mandy Martin was awarded an Environmental Education Trust Grant to work on a project, where the main focus was in the area of the north-western portion of New South Wales along the Murray-Darling Basin Australia.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-1

    • 1-1 Research: Aboriginal (1 of 2), 1978-1989
    • 1-2 Research: Aboriginal (2 of 2), 1990-1996
    • 1-3 Research: Land (1 of 2), 1848-1993
    • 1-4 Research: Land (2 of 2), 1994-1998
    • 1-5 Funding, 1995-1996
    • 1-6 Book, 1996-1998
    • 1-7 Exhibition, 1996-1998
    • 1-8 Presentation for Coopers Creek Protection Group, 1996
    • 1-9 Press & Media, 1997

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 26

    • 1-9#1 The Canberra Times, Newspaper, 1997
    • 1-9#2 Muse, Newspaper, 1997

CAE1512/2 Series 2: Watersheds: The Paroo to the Warrego, 1985-2000

Series 2 contains materials relating to, Watersheds: The Paroo to the Warrego, which is the second installment of an environmental project series. This project took place during 1998 and 1999 and was an environmental study of the upper part of the catchment, Paroo and Warrego Rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin in central Queensland, Australia.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-1

    • 2-1 Research, 1985-1999
    • 2-2 Book, 1999-2000
    • 2-3 Exhibition: Information, 1999-2000
    • 2-4 Exhibition: Images, 1999-2000
    • 2-5 Continued Research, 1999-2000

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 26

    • 2-1#1 The Australian, Newspaper, 1997
    • 2-1#2 The Australian Financial Review, Newspaper, 1997
    • 2-1#3 The Australian’s Review of Books, Newspaper, 1999
    • 2-1#4 The Canberra Times, Newspaper, 1997
    • 2-5#1 Bookmark Biosphere Reserve, Newsletter, 2000
    • 2-5#2 The Weekend Australian, Newspaper, 1999
    • 2-5#3 The Weekend Australian, Newspaper, 2000

  • Archive S-Box 27

    • 2-1#5 The Australian Magazine, 1998
    • 2-1#6 The Australian, Newspaper, 1999

CAE1512/3 Series 3: Inflows: The Channel Country, 1861-2007

Series 3 contains materials relating to, Inflows: The Channel Country, which is the third installment of an environmental project series. The project took place in 2001 and was an environmental study The Channel Country of the Lake Eyre Basin and Coopers Creek. The Basin includes large parts of the state of South Australia, the Northern Territory and the state of Queensland; as well as a small part of the western portion of the state of New South Wales.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-1

    • 3-1 Research: Historical Materials, 1861-1994
    • 3-2 Research: Regional Materials (1 of 3), 1985-1997
    • 3-3 Research: Regional Materials (2 of 3), 1997-1999
    • 3-4 Research: Regional Materials (3 of 3), 1999-2000
    • 3-5 Funding Proposals and Correspondence, 1999-2001
    • 3-6 In the Field Images, 1999
    • 3-7 Book Publication Drafts and Correspondence, 1999-2000
    • 3-8 Exhibitions (1 of 2), 1999-2001
    • 3-9 Exhibitions (2 of 2), 2000-2002
    • 3-10 Continued Research, 2001-2007

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 26

    • 3-4#1 The Advertiser, Newspaper, 2000
    • 3-4#2 The Sydney Morning Herald, Newspaper, 1999
    • 3-10#1 The Australian, Newspaper, 2001
    • 3-10#2 The Australian Financial Review, Newspaper, 2007
    • 3-10#3 The Courier-Mail, Newspaper, 2007
    • 3-10#4 The Weekend Australian, Newspaper, 2004

  • Archive S-Box 27

    • 3-4#3 The Australian Magazine, 2000
    • 3-10#5 The Weekend Australian Magazine, 2004

CAE1512/4 Series 4: Land$cape: Gold & Water, 2001-2012

Series 4 contains items related to the project titled Land$capes: Gold & Water that took place during 2001 – 2002. It was a study on the Cadia Hill Gold Mine, owned by Newcrest Mining Limited and located on 10,000 hectares of natural habitat and agricultural land alongside the Belubula River, in the Lachlan River catchment, part of Murray Darling Basin in the southeastern portion the state of New South Wales.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-2

    • 4-1 Cadia-Ridgeway Mine Research, 2001-2002
    • 4-2 Land & Water Australia Grant, 2002-2006
    • 4-3 Australia National University Field Study, 2001-2002
    • 4-4 In the Field Images, 2002
    • 4-5 Related Precursor Exhibitions, 2001-2002
    • 4-6 Project Exhibitions, 2002-2004
    • 4-7 Project Catalog, 2003
    • 4-8 Project Summary & Continued Research, 2003-2012

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 26

    • 4-5#2 The Tablelands Post, Newspaper, 2001-2002

CAE1512/5 Series 5: The Lachlan: Blue-Gold, 2003-2005

Series 5 contains items related to the project titled The Lachlan: Blue-Gold that took place during 2002 – 2003. It was a further study of the Lachlan River catchment in the southeastern portion the state of New South Wales. Then followed up by The Scar Tree Project 2004 – 2005 and a presentation done by Mandy Martin and Trisha Carroll-Freeman called Absence and Presence in 2005, that brings together Land$capes, The Lachlan and The Scar Tree.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-2

    • 5-1 Field Studies Program, 2003
    • 5-2 Project Catalog, 2003
    • 5-3 Project Exhibition, 2003
    • 5-4 Scar Tree Project, 2004-2005
    • 5-5 Final Presentation, 2004-2005

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 26

    • 5-4#82 The Cowra Guardian, Newspaper, 2004
    • 5-4#83 The Cowra Guardian, Newspaper, 2005

CAE1512/6 Series 6: Strata: Deserts Past, Present and Future, 1996-2006

Series 6 contains items related to the project titled Strata: Deserts Past, Present and Future that took place from 2002 – 2005. It was an environmental study of Puritjarra, a rock shelter in the Cleland Hills, west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is part of the country of the people of the Ikuntji/ Haasts Bluff community.

  • ARCH-FILE 55-2

    • 6-1 Research, 1996-2004
    • 6-2 Land & Water Australia Grant, 2002-2005
    • 6-3 Field Study, 2002-2004
    • 6-4 Catalog, 2005
    • 6-5 Project Presentations, 2005
    • 6-6 Project Exhibition, 2005
    • 6-7 Project Summary Article, Dr. Libby Robin, 2006