Project Statement
For my year-long master’s project, I worked with Byron Shire Council to address issues arising from a massive fish kill at the mouth of Tallow Creek, just south of Byron Bay. The creek is part of an extensive network of ICOLLs (intermittently closed and open lakes and lagoons) on the east coast of New South Wales. These are complex places of great beauty, enormous flux, that are subject to intense development pressures. Most of the research about ICOLLs is scientific: there is lots of data, but not much about place, and there has been very little opportunity to date for local communities to share day-to-day experiences and memories of living in place. The council has found communicating with stakeholders challenging. In 2019, local residents pressured the council to artificially open the Tallow Creek mouth at short notice and with disastrous effects: within hours of the mouth opening thousands of fish had died.
Working with Traditional Owners and the local community — often remotely because of extensive COVID-related lockdowns — I developed a unique process of communication through film and collaborative drawing. The research centred on developing trust and expressing values in novel ways in order to reveal the value of this complex landscape to everyone involved. My work was exhibited at the lighthouse in Byron Bay, where I conducted tours for school groups, local government agencies and the community. Council and visitors noted that the work had the potential to bring a different dimension to stakeholder consultation. Its visual and “slow consultation” qualities offer expanded techniques for practitioners and government agencies to work with and communicate landscape values to a diverse audience. The project develops a sense of “feeling heard” and ultimately strengthens a respect for and connection to place.
