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"NORTHERN WATERS"

22 July 2025 – 6 December 2025  

Rachel O'Reilly 

"NORTHERN WATERS" is a new experimental film exploring complex aftermaths of the successful 1960s Save the Reef Campaign. Focused on key sites of dialogue at the 'littoral zone' (the space at the edge of a water body) where agriculture and tourism meet at-risk ‘reef and rainforest’ ecologies, the film mobilises imagination and future generations’ care for these vital and highly contested sites.

Featuring recent interviews with First Nations artists, activists, and scientists and revisiting the video archives of past campaigns, the film is the culmination of a multi-year regional research residency undertaken by O’Reilly through UQ Art Museum’s partnership with the JCU Blue Humanities Lab. A major outcome of the residency was an intensive workshop called Northern Conditions, Planetary Practices (2023) which brought together regional arts workers and environmentalists on Djiru Country (Bingil Bay), some of whom are in the film. The workshop enabled information sharing on plural histories, current energy and ecology issues in the context of local and global warming futures. The workshop was located at Ninney Rise Historic House, the original location of the 1960s Save the Reef movement that brought together artist-activists (i.e. Judith Wright and John Busst), politicians (Harold Holt), and scientists (Len Webb, the Queensland Littoral Society, Charlie Veron), and now houses part of the campaign archive. 

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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and through the philanthropic legacy of Paula and Tony Kinnane.