Drawing from the River Bremer[1]

The River Bremer is a little-known stream that rises near Mount Torrens and flows south through the towns of Harrogate, Callington and Langhorne Creek before entering Lake Alexandrina. It is an old river that, over time, has etched its way through what became the lands of the Peramangk and Ngarrindjeri people.

By the 1860s (before cameras could capture what was about to be lost), the river’s valley had been denuded of trees for mining and smelting; these and other industries that used the river as a drain. Today, dams and pumps extract water for use by stock, orchards and vines, strangling the river’s flow. Consequently, for much of the year the river is little more than a series of stagnant pools and dry beds. Despite all this the river remains.
Six years ago, after years of painting, drawing and photographing in the Adelaide Hills, we turned our attention to the River Bremer and its environs. The works we’ve produced reflect our responses to the river; time listening to the sound of the wind, the flow of water, the calls of birds. Watching cloud shadows race across folding hills, reflections from rock pools and the flight of birds, observing the changing colours of the seasons, paddocks changing colour from summer straw to winter green.

[1] In its lower reaches, the river was called Miochi by Aboriginal people. Miochi (sometimes spelt Meechi) is said to be a local pronunciation of mitji, meaning mosquito, wasp or native bee.