Bimblebox 153 Birds will be in Miles, western Queensland.
Bimblebox 153 Birds
will be exhibited at the
John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery
Dogwood Crossing,
81 Murilla Street
Miles QLD
Exhibition opening:
6.30pm, 2 September, 2022
you can register for the opening here.
Exhibition dates:
3 September – 29 October, 2022
Opening times:
9am – 5pm Monday to Friday
9am – 12pm Saturday
Sunday CLOSED
more information here.
Bimblebox 153 Birds surrounds you with the sights and sounds of birdlife found on the Bimblebox Nature Refuge. This unique installation combines artist prints, poetry, prose and musical interpretations of birdcalls contributed by over 450 people worldwide.
Each bird species found on Bimblebox is explored by a writer, an artist and a musician. Bird call inspired compositions and recordings of writers’ poetry and prose form a soundscape, while artists’ representations of the many and varied Bimblebox birds flock along the walls.
Located in Central Queensland’s Galilee Basin, Bimblebox is an 8000 hectare parcel of privately-held, never-been-cleared woodland and a significant pocket of biodiversity. Although protected in perpetuity by a Nature Refuge Agreement, it is not protected from, and is consequently threatened by, coal mining.
Bimblebox was thought to be home to 153 species of birds—more have since been identified, and now the number of species is 181*. It’s habitat for the endangered Black-throated Finch and twelve species of conservation significance including the Squatter Pigeon and Grey-crowned Babbler.
Bimblebox 153 Birds showcases creative responses across a broad range of printmaking techniques, writing styles and innovative music. It enthrals people who love being surrounded by birds while it sparks stories and conversations. It’s our story of our birds, how we experience them and sadly, how we may lose them.
Curator Jill Sampson
Audio compilation and mixing by Boyd
Over the past few months The Bimblebox Alliance has been in the Land Court of Queensland in the fight to protect the Bimblebox Nature Refuge from Waratah Coal’s plans for a thermal coal mine. The findings of this court will be announced in the coming months.
*The number of bird species currently in Bimblebox 153 Birds is 158. Due to illness I’ve been unable to curate the further bird species, since their identification, into this exhibition. Jill Sampson
Featured artwork:
I feel a rush of joy when I see rainbow birds along water courses, as sentinels, their stark silhouettes sitting on powerlines and the flash of bronze under their wings against the sky. I love their brilliant colours like sparkling jewels, kingfisher beak and distinctive separated tail, the way they catch insects on the wing. Their nests in the ground are surprising. I associate these birds with the intense colours of the blue green subterranean water and plants from our Waanyi Country in N. W. Qld. Boodjamulla, the rainbow serpent / ancestral presence still resides in the waters of the gorge. These and other birds are like the messengers from our ancestors. I have painted some of them with red ochre as a mark of respect.
Judy Watson, Rainbow Bird, 2019.
Bimblebox Art Project 