We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Fiona Lowry Beneath this dry land

acrylic on canvas

137 x 198 cm

See this work in the Gallery collection

A few years ago, a friend who lives in the high country north of Jindabyne [in the NSW Snowy Mountain region], mentioned a tree near his place that has wild dogs hanging from it. I had never heard of anything like it.

The drive there takes you past the Gungarlin River, a popular picnic spot for the early settlers, and then onto Snowy Plain Road where the landscape is silent until you see the dogs hanging in different states of decay, some mummified.

These spectral ‘dog trees’ go back to the earliest days of European settlement and this old Eucalypt has been in use for over 60 years.

Fiona Lowry, 2017