Kakadu & Top End Wall Art
Wait for the water to drop. The Top End spends half the year underwater and the other half drying out, and the fortnight when the floodplains are still full but the roads have reopened is when most of this collection was made. Fourteen prints.
A landscape that only exists part of the year
Nothing in this collection is permanent. The billabongs that carry the lilies are dry ground by October, the falls that run in March are rock faces by June, and the floodplain that reflects the sky is cracked mud for months at a time. Photographing here is a scheduling problem before it is a compositional one.
Kakadu
Yellow Waters, Kakadu, NT is the best known wetland in the park and the image most people recognise. Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu, NT and Maguk Falls, Kakadu, NT are escarpment waterfalls that only run after the wet. Day After, Kakadu, NT and Drifting Along, Kakadu, NT work the floodplain from water level, and Billabong Nourlangie Rock puts the sandstone outlier behind the water.
The lilies
Oenpelli Billabong and Oenpelli Lilies, NT are the two images from the western Arnhem Land side. Water lilies across still water is one of the few subjects in Australian landscape work that reads as pattern and as place at the same time, which makes these the most decorative pieces in the Northern Territory catalogue.
South and east
Whispering Waters, Katherine Gorge, NT sits below the Top End proper, where the Katherine River cuts through sandstone. Sliding Rock Yirrkala, NT reaches east into Arnhem Land, and Blythe Homestead Wangi, NT and Walker Creek Tin Mine, NT are the two built structures in the group.
What these do in a room
Green, wet and reflective. The Top End images are the coolest in the Northern Territory set and they work as a deliberate counterweight to the red centre images rather than alongside them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time of year do these images show?
The window after the wet, when the floodplains are still full but the roads have reopened. It is a short season and it is the reason the water in these images sits high and the country is green rather than red. Photographed later in the year the same places look nothing like this.
Do I need a permit to visit the places in these images?
Some of them, yes. Parts of Kakadu are restricted and much of Arnhem Land requires a permit to enter. Those permits are issued by the traditional owners and the managing authorities, not by the gallery, and the conditions change. Check current requirements with Parks Australia and the Northern Land Council before you travel.
Which is the most recognisable Kakadu print?
Yellow Waters, Kakadu, NT. It is the wetland most visitors to the park see, and the image reads immediately as Kakadu to anyone who has been there.
What shapes are these prints available in?
The catalogue is offered in panoramic, vertical, square and mega pan shapes. Not every photograph is made in every shape, and the shapes available for any given image are listed on its own print page. The Top End work is predominantly panoramic, which suits floodplain country where the interest runs left to right rather than up and down.