Gascoyne & Mid West Aboriginal Art

The Mid West of Western Australia is a vast region of 472,000 square kilometres that ranges from the coastal areas to remote desert. The regional centre is Geraldton, with smaller coastal towns at Dongara, Northampton and Kalbarri, while inland towns include Mt Magnet, Meekatharra and Wiluna. Mining, agriculture and fishing industries dominate the economy of the region. More recently the SKA radio telescope project was established and will provide the most powerful survey of space up to a million times faster than current capacities.

The Gascoyne region is centred on the town of Carnarvon and includes the coastal towns of Exmouth, Denham and Coral Bay. Other coastal sites include Ningaloo Reef and the Shark Bay World Heritage site. Horticulture exists along the Gascoyne River utilising the arid tropical conditions. Inland is more arid and desert-like with spinifex and mulga bushland.

Aboriginal artists work in regional centres of Geraldton and Carnarvon, Mt Magnet and Wiluna. Tjukurba Gallery in Wiluna represents Birriliburu artists at their gallery housed in the hundred year old former hospital building. Gascoyne artist Sonya Edney has produced images that capture the landscape and vast night skies of the Gascoyne area. Displaced Arnhemland artist Doris Gingingara painted in Mt Magnet throughout the 1990s although her subjects remained from her homelands.

Find out more:

• Sonya Edney Artist Bio & Artworks
• Doris Gingingara Artist Bio & Artworks