Long Live the Species

1 – 7 October 2022

By Carmel Killin
Designer, educator, art activist

Long Live the Species is the fourth iteration of the Day of the Species project, a collaboration between Day of the Species and Harrigans Lane Collective. The exhibition and Art+Nature trail ran for a week in October 2022, with Carmel in residence to inform and guide visitors.

This ongoing, ever-evolving community art project aims to raise awareness of the biodiversity crisis in Australia. As of August 2022, there are 1,853 flora and fauna on our national threatened species list.

In this most comprehensive artistic representation of our threatened flora and fauna, you could see all 1,853 species, created by hand onto tiny pieces of recycled packaging by over 200 professional and amateur artists from across Australia.

The exhibition was held in Limeburners, a brick, timber and tin building nestled in the forest on the Harrigans Lane property. The Art+Nature trail meandered through the Eucalypts and featured 16 large scale original artworks of local species of flora and fauna under threat. All were painted on recycled cardboard by artists from across Australia and were left immersed in nature to gradually disappear.

On the first Sunday of the arts trail, Steve Haslam, passionate conservationist and educator, gave a short talk about the incredible work at his nearby nature reserve, Quoll HQ. This captivating conversation was followed by the otherworldly music and vocals of acclaimed musician and nature-enthusiastic, Helen Svoboda, who traveled from Melbourne specially for the event.