Three local historians, Christine Bramble, Jude Conway and Barbara Heaton, worked with members of the Newcastle Printmakers Workshop, including myself, in an exhibition that celebrates the lives of stand out women of local history.

My work for the exhibition was based on the life of Vera Deacon: The Hunter river was a major influence on Vera who grew up on it’s estuary islands; later amalgamated into Kooragang Island through the dumping of industrial waste. Her father eked out a living from the river fish and as a young woman Vera rowed herself through the tides to work and attend classes on the mainland. Her father, dismayed when he realised the fish he was catching to support his family were full of tar, always implored Vera to look after the river and in her later years Vera volunteered many hours replanting to rehabilitate the area destroyed through industrialisation.

Open 5 August - 1 October 2023, Weekends only, 10am-4pm Free entry