I had always thought that the term “Down Under” was coined in 1981 by the singer songwriter, Colin Hay of Men at Work. I’d been under the misapprehension that it took someone from somewhere else to understand that Australia was essentially a long way from anywhere. I was half right. When the 14 year old Hay came from Scotland to Australia he brought with him a term that had been popular in the 19th century as a British colloquialism for the long sea voyage to the antipodes.

When we recently moved from Queensland to Adelaide the Room Down Under took on another meaning. I’ve never seen so many houses that have cellars. These are big rooms with staircases. Sometimes with a hatch in the living space or in our home near the back door. We once owned a church in Bendigo that had a hatch in the kitchen. Unfortunately nothing significant was discovered beyond an old Ralph Lauren box perhaps belonging to a priest with a penchant for luxury accessories.

These rooms down under can be places where we keep our wine, where we gather for an intimate wine tasting or a place where we keep our secrets. As the world becomes more homogenised by social media and the powers that be control more than they should it’s nice to think that perhaps that long voyage to Australia keeps us a little bit secret and protected like a Room Down Under.

This place down under has other advantages by being far away from the rest of the world. Over 86% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on earth. To be able to stand on a sand bank on the Noosa River surrounded by pelicans and capture their magnificence has been a pleasure beyond my imagining. And then to move to Adelaide and live at the base of the Adelaide hills and walk up behind our house and be confronted with a kangaroo that is more than happy to stare me down and question the validity of me walking the path beyond him is the kind of confrontation that I take back to my studio ready to breathe the memory of that experience back into a painting.

This painting is my personal journey from Queensland to South Australia. It’s about celebrating where you live and the different and extraordinary experiences and memories that our environments offer up to us. It is a painting about The Land Down Under placed in a room and you’re very welcome to bring a Vegemite sandwich when you visit.