Murray River Aboriginal Art
A selection of paintings showing the styles from this Aboriginal art region - some paintings may still be available for sale, while some may have been sold.
The Murray River is Australia’s longest and most serviceable river, running 2500 kms from the Australian Alps through open plains country to the coast in South Australia. The Murray River forms the state border between Victoria and New South Wales. The river serves to irrigate large tracts of farmland and contributes to some of the most productive land in the country. The river hosts the towns of Albury- Wadonga, Mildura, Murray Bridge, Moama-Echuca, Swan Hill and Renmark.
The Murray River is associated with plentiful animal life including Murray cod, perch and other fish, river crayfish, turtles, yabbies, shrimps and platypus. The river has an ancient association with Aboriginal people, whose Creation stories of the river tell of the Ancestor Ngurunderi chasing Pondi the Murray Cod along the river course.
Country along the Murray River was first visited by explorers during the 1820s and 1830s and it soon developed as a transport hub hosting river steamships. Water storage reservoirs were built during the 1920s and 1930s and water was diverted for irrigation and farming. Aboriginal people continued to live throughout this country as the region grew with settlers, farmers and townspeople.
Murray River region has been home to a number of prominent Aboriginal artists including Ian Abdulla (1947-2011), Trevor Turbo Brown (b. 1967), and Summer Matthews (b. 1980).