Snowmelt [2020-21]
photographic seriesFinalist, 2021 Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize
Acquired by Macquarie Group Collection
“These photographs by Lachlan Bell are set in regional Australia. The forgotten graves in a country churchyard, and the rusting petrol bowsers superfluous in a modern world, stand like sentries protecting memories embedded in the landscapes of lives past.” Felicity Fenner, Macquarie Group Curatorial Consultant
The following photographic images were taken in June 2020 in a town called Dalgety, along the banks of the Snowy River, 5 hours away from Sydney. Nestled off the main highway, this area is rich in history visited by Ngarigo and Thaua people, cattle drovers, sheep rearers and gold prospectors. The titles of the works allude to death and its many euphemisms as a humourous way of acknowledging the very real way death and mortality is much more present in the regions. Where city slickers (myself included) often glamorise and romanticising a cottage-core life in the sticks, I’m continually reminded during my travels of a very real and tangible presence of mortality, death and of connection to land. In an ever changing landscape threatened by climate change, environmental degradation, gentrification and urban transition paired with an aging population and heightened suicide rates, this utopian vision of a mythologised past is often at odds with the reality faced in our regions. Coupled with a chilly mountainous air of solace and serenity, it can all become quite addictive for one escaping the humdrum and irreverent busyness of city/suburban life.
The genre of travel or roadside photography is inherently problematic in nature. Whose permission do you have to take these images, whose Country are you standing on and whose history & truth are you recording and ossifying. I revisited this town in November 2021 after taking these images, as I do every time I go to the Snowies, and it was an important way of challenging my own understanding from a year ago by meeting the residents and talking to the owners of the properties in town.
Memento Mori (Dalgety)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]
The petrol pumps/bowsers pictured in this image are situated along the main drag of Dalgety, on the corner of Campbell St and Hamilton St. The photo was taken in 2020, however when I revisited in November 2021, I met with the new owner of the former mechanics garage, Tegan Young, who delighted me in her knowledge of the town and her time spent growing up in the Snowy region. Knowledgable on the history of the town she explained how this place was once a a travellers inn, an antique store, a Golden Fleece mechanic and petrol station and now she is in the process of renovating the property and turning it into a coffee roastery and her passion and enthusiasm for this endeavour seemed palpable.
In 1902, the town of Dalgety was a contender for the site of the Australian nation’s capital among others. With it’s cool climate [and the assumed health benefits that came with it] and proximity to the Snowy River meant that energy & water scarcity was not an issue were a proposed dam at Boloko be built downstream of Jindabyne. By 1908, Federal Parliament could not make a comrpomise on a site, meant that Kamberri [Canberra] was chosen and more centrally situated between the two cities of Sydney [Warrang] and Melbourne [Naarm].
The town of Dalgety, once known as ‘Buckley’s Crossing’ now remains the only settlement permanently inhabited along the banks of the Snowy River. Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Thaua and Ngarigo people and an important river crossing for both the First Nations people and the early cattle drovers as it was one of the only safe place to cross the Snowy River. Following the completion of the Snowy Hydro Scheme in 1967, the rivers flow was reduced to 1% annual natural flow up until 2002, irreversably changing the landscape downstream.
Pushing Up Burr-daisies (Boloco)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]
This photo was taken at the Boloco Cemetery located near St James Anglican Church in Boloco, near Beloka. The church was dedicated in 1873 and has remained an important rest stop and community gathering place since its consecration. As the first Church to be built south of the Snowy River in the Snowy Monaro region, it was designed by a noted Architect in 19th Century Churches, Canon Alberto Soares, and is considered one of his best works, and was funded by Mrs Elizabeth Watson from Lancashire for her migrant sons, Henry and John, who settled at Matong, to build a Church when they settled as graziers in the Boloco area. Combined with local pastoralist’s donations this funded the Church’s construction. Recently, speaking with warden Pippa Robertson, I learnt of it’s history and recent renovations which remain ongoing. In 2019 a grant was approved to fund the repair and paint the interior of the Church and completed on 23rd January 2021, complete with a christening held at COVID-capacity. Sites like these remind me of the long journeys taken back in the early 19th Century by graziers, drovers and stockmen who would often rely on churches and inns as places of rest and respite. Now sitting unassumingly along the side of the road, this church once again remains a place of quite solitude and reflection on what community means in the 21st Century.
The photograph depicts the Victorian-era marble graves of five members of the Crisp family, a well-respected and known family from the Dalgety and Jimenbuen area. From the left, the graves belong to:
- Amos Crisp [b. 1847 - d. 25 April 1923]
- Elizabeth Ann Crisp (née Williams) [b. 29 July 1824 - d. 1906]
- Grace Susan Crisp [b. 1873 - d. 5 August 1898]
- Amos Crisp Jnr [b. 14 January 1812 - d. 4 July, 1881]
- Eliza Jane Crisp [b. 29 October 1856 - d. 20 March 1884]
The history of this family is fraught with errors and historical mistranslations particularly owing to Amos Crisp Jnr’s parental heritage as the son of a convict. Something about the nature of graves, memorials and buildings as physical storytelling devices [equally susceptable to mistranslation over time], resonated with both this image and the one taken in Dalgety.
The earliest burial at Boloco cemetery was in 1872. The earliest marked grave is that of Annie Norman Watson who died 1st February 1878. Boloco cemetery is an intact example of Victorian rural cemetery, where a number of Victorian carved marble monuments, some with iron fences or stone walls remain in the cemetery. Traditional plantings include Radiata Pines [Pinus radiata] and Hawthorne hedges [Crataegus monogyna]. Boloco cemetery demonstrates the evolution of burial customs and traditions over 160 years.
The cemetery remains importantly a refuge for many native plant species. Remnant vegetation found in many cemeteries provide a habitat that can help the survival of many species. Cemeteries across Australia provide life-saving refugees for some of the nations most endangered native plants, even entire native ecosystems. The north western unknown section of the cemetery contains highly diverse high condition native ground cover. One such species is the Mauve Burr-daisy [Calotis glandulosa]. The daisy is currently listed as vulnerable species which means they face a very high risk of extinction in Australia in the near future. By leaving the section unmown it aided in the conservation of the species, and current examples of this species can be seen fortunately flowering both in the unmowed section and surrounding church grounds.
In the Styx (Buckley’s)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]
Parochial Vistas (Dalgety)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]
Bert’s Barby (Dalgety)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]
Pergolatory (Dalgety)
digital photograph [Nikon D3300]