Grassy Woodlands - Still Life
The Grassy Woodlands photography series captures knowledge that ecologists and farmers have about grassy woodlands. This series consists of landscape and still life photographs.
High quality grassy woodlands are easily overlooked because, superficially, they can look like a paddock. But from an ecologist’s perspective, high quality temperate grassy woodlands have very diverse native grass and forb (wildflower) ground-layer, with patches of shrubs (occasionally absent) and widely spaced eucalypt trees. Temperate grassy woodlands once covered extensive areas across inland Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and southern Queensland (Australia). High quality examples are now largely restricted to roadsides, small reserves and cemeteries. Grassy woodlands occur on land that is easily used for agriculture and therefore have been widely converted to pastures and crops.
In making this work I collaborated with woodland ecologist Dr Sue McIntyre, and consulted with farmers and other ecologists. The photographs visually communicate ecological and farming knowledge of grassy woodlands, and changes that have happened to plant diversity as agriculture developed over their range. The body of work was made over a period of 10 years.