Above is our entry for the Whittlesea Exhibition opening in November 2009. It has just been accepted into the exhibition. The theme is My Changing Landscape and this work is reflective of the changes in the bush landscape around South Morang, largely due to urban development and shopping centres and business expansion which has reduced the bush land, and left the kangaroos with less homeland. Westfield did pay for relocation attempts, however this has been largely unsuccessful, and the kangaroos are back living precariously amongst the urban sprawl, they are jumping along our streets either lost or panicked, and there have been car accidents with the roos jumping in front of traffic. We created kangaroo masks and took the photos to highlight two things -

1. The kangaroos are trying to survive in their natural homeland however this is getting harder and harder, as they are vulnerable amongst the development that is expanding the areas urban sprawl, and they are seen dead on the side of the road, jumping in front of traffic, jumping along quiet suburban streets where there was once bush land, and even mutilated as seen recently in the local papers. It is sad that these families of local roos are being pushed out. They are the unfortunates in this political issue. We travelled around a 5kms radius in South Morang where the kangaroos are regularly seen at dusk.
2. The people wearing the masks, or the people behind the masks.You decide which. People being the operative word here, people are making the decisions about human development, relocation of the kangaroos, etc. It is people who are debating what to do with the roos. People who are creating the problem and people who are trying to solve the problem. There are two sides to the argument, and people on both sides. Whose side will you take? That is up to you. Our decision to create the piece was based on asking the question and highlighting the issue.