This body of work focuses on a particular region: The Coorong, located in The Murray Darling River Basin.
The union of art and science in this series is combined to convey a certain message about the way this region can survive.
This series looks at how science past and present has touched on key aspects of the Murray Darlings survival. Represented by the prints of birds and plant species from the region, that seek to highlight how our scientists are have recorded and documented the changes to bird and plant population past and present. Art too has historically had a role that documents and records the environment. Older images by master landscape painters exist in our museums as the earliest records of how the landscape began before white man changed its natural beauty.

This is the first Series in an on going visual exploration of the Murray Darling River Basin. The Coorong, a wetland of international significance is home to an annual bird migration course. Birds fly from China and Japan to breed here. It is also the final junction of the Murray before it reaches the sea.
Until 3 years ago I had never heard of the Coorong. Since embarking on this visual journey I have had the honour of meeting people who are apart of the Coorongs ongoing survival. Grant from the Ngarrindjeri tribe (Australia’s largest aboriginal tribe) and Professor Richard Kingsford who has just completed the first aerial survey of the region in 25 years.

The Murray Darling River is the life line of our country, its beauty and unique species are something I seek to highlight by producing this series. I would like the Murray Darling and the Coorong to survive as it is, and not for these images to become museum pieces of what once was.

Rachel Carroll
February, 2008