The program began with the launch of this web site by Matt Foley MP, Minister for Employment, Training and Youth and Minister for the Arts, Queensland Government and a strong advocate of regional arts and art education initiatives.
   
 
 

Matt Foley, launching this web site at the Regional Galleries Association of Queensland Brisbane offices on the 24th July 2001 said:
"Blighted Paradise . . . Australia's north. No part of this continent remains as unfamiliar, unexplored, misunderstood. And yet, this terrain is the stuff of our dreams. The exhibition at the Rockhampton Art Gallery will retrace the steps of the early explorers - Cook, Kennedy, Flinders, Gregory - viewing this country through their weary but exhilarated European eyes. It is a mark of the growing cultural role played by our regional galleries that they are telling these incredibly important stories. Congratulations to the Rockhampton Art Gallery for tackling as adventurous an undertaking as that of the colonial explorers themselves."

     

OPENING EVENTS: 11-14 October 2001

Thursday 11th - Official opening, 4.30pm for 5.00pm

Blighted Paradise
will be officially opened by The Honourable Matt Foley, Minister for the Arts and Minister for Employment, Training and Youth.

Friday 12th - Boat trip to Port Clinton, 8.00am-5.00pm.

Depart Rosslyn Bay at 8.00am on board the Reefcat. Travel in the wake of Matthew Flinders and locate the site that inspired William Westall's painting "View of Port Bowen". This stretch of coastline is part of the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area and Rockhampton Art Gallery has negotiated the rare privilege of visiting this beautiful area.
Cost $125.00 includes lunch and exhibition catalogue.

 

Saturday 13th - Guest lectures, 1.00pm-5.00pm

  • An introduction to Blighted Paradise, by Lisa Loader, Exhibition Curator and Gallery Director.

  • The heritage of Tropical Australia: regional accommodations. Emeritus Professor C. C. Macknight, formerly at the Australian National University and recently retired as Professor of Humanities at University of Tasmania in Launceston, did pioneering research on the history of northern Australia. His major work, The voyage to Marenge': Macassan trepangers in northern Australia is the classic study of that industry. He will explore some general themes on the history of northern Australia.

  • Travelling north: artists' and explorers' views on their journeys north. Martin Terry, Curator of Exploration at the National Maritime Museum, Sydney, will give an illustrated presentation on the work of William Westall, P.P. King, Owen Stanley and others, whose vision of Australia was so different from that of artists painting in the south. He is the author of Maritime Painting in Early Australia, published by Miegunyah Press.

  • Ellis Rowan: a flower-hunter in Queensland. Dr Judith McKay, Curator of Applied Arts at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane will give an illustrated talk on the six northern collecting trips of the noted flower-painter and adventurer Marian Ellis Rowan, between 1887 to 1913. Dr McKay has undertaken research on many aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage. She takes up a Smithsonian Fellowship early next year.

    Cost $12.00 includes all lectures, afternoon tea and exhibition entry

Sunday 14th

  • Exhibition floorwalk, 1.00pm - 2.00pm Exhibition Curator and Gallery Director, Lisa Loader will conduct a floorwalk through Blighted Paradise.
    Cost - Floorwalk is included with admission to the exhibition.

  • Children's activity, 1.00pm - 3.00pm
    Bush ABC (Acacia, Banksia, Callistemon …); create a book to take home. This hands-on activity for children, with a special botanical theme, will be conducted by artist/gardener Dieter Irving. Austrian by birth, Dieter received his art training in Mannheim before becoming a practising artist and art teacher. He came to Australia and settled in Yeppoon with his family in the 1980s. He has received grants to paint the Shoalwater Bay area and has an abiding interest in depicting and conserving the natural environment. Dieter is responsible for the native planting at Rockhampton Heritage Village.
    Cost - $5.00/person

Bookings for all events are essential and can be made by contacting the Rockhampton Art Gallery on (07) 4936 8248.

Blighted Paradise: Colonial Visions of Northern Australia (12 October - 25 November)
General Admission Prices:
Adult: $7
Concession: $5
Student: $3
Family: $20
Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday: 10am - 4pm
Saturday/Sunday/Public Holidays: 11am - 4pm