HEADLAND
The Outside Story
On this continent there are many points of invasion. Yet the place that has become the symbolic site is the place that the traditional owners called Gamay, and which Captain Cook re-named Botany Bay. It was here that the mari nuwi, the big canoes, arrived in 1770 and again in 1788. It was here that the barawalgal appeared from the clouds, like aliens from another planet. Some of the local people thought they were mani, ghosts. Having chosen this bay of all bays in the whole landmass as their point of entry, the newcomers developed a paranoia about it. This was where others might come, and displace them. As early as the Crimean War, underground fortifications were built on the northern headland, and in the Second World War this was the location of the main coastal defences for the area. The headland still belongs to the Commonwealth Department of Defence. Here in the bush where Sir Joseph Banks collected his specimens, the dome-shaped structures of derelict gunbatteries and observation rooms sit like the skulls of some alien mega-species. Inside these bunkers, black camouflage paint has been scraped back to the bone by generations of graffiti-artists. In their imagery of sharks, shells, jellyfish, harpoons, muskets and spears, and in the recurring symbol of the Aboriginal flag, there is a haunting sense of history.
Nadia Wheatley
The Inside Story
I always say that I walk into a painting. Yet while I spent many days drawing on site, most of the journey for this series was to my own interior headland. Looking out (or maybe in) through the window-slits or down the subterranean passageways, appearances are deceptive. Thoughts splinter. Skin corrodes. Memory fractures. Time shifts in and out. Yet occasional moments of luminescence redeem the blackness.
Ken Searle