Ray Crooke Dick Roughsey, OBE

Following a brief period studying art at Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne-born Ray Crooke enlisted in the army in 1940, which took him to Cape York and Waiben (Thursday Island) and instilled in him a fascination for the peoples and landscape of Far North Queensland. After the war he completed his studies but soon returned to Waiben where he began painting scenes of island life, for which he is best known.

In 1969, Crooke – together with pilot and explorer Percy Trezise and Kunhanaamendaa artist Goobalathaldin (Dick Roughsey) – began a search for the historical goldrush site Hells Gate, in the Kennedy Creek region of Cape York Peninsula. That same year Crooke won the Archibald Prize with a portrait of his close friend, novelist George Johnston.

Born on Langunarnji Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria around 1920, Goobalathaldin was encouraged throughout his career by Trezise – with whom he collaborated – and Crooke, successfully exhibiting bark paintings and oils, and creating illustrated children’s books. In 1971 his book Moon and rainbow was the first published autobiography by an Aboriginal Australian and, in 1973, he became the first chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board. Goobalathaldin died in 1985.

In this 1982 Archibald work, Crooke depicts the artist in his studio, surrounded by his works celebrating Kunhanaamendaa culture and traditions. The portrait is now in the Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Collection with the title Portrait of Dick Roughsey, OBE.