Ro Murray and Mandy Burgess

About the work

The survival of many species, such as the Regent Honeyeater, is threatened by changes to the environment brought about by human use, and locally by the loss of woodland habitat in the

Canberra region. Prior to clearing for grazing there were extensive areas of Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum grassy woodlands in the lower parts of the Canberra Region and extending north towards Goulburn that would have been used by Regent Honeyeaters. Regents are still occasional visitors to the remnants of these woodlands and several breeding attempts have been recorded in the past 10 or 20 years. Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, near Gungahlin, in northeast Canberra, protects one of the largest remnants of these woodlands. Iain Patterson, Birdlife Australia.

The numbers of Regent have dropped drastically from large nomadic flocks to around 200 in the wild. A breeding and release recovery program led by Taronga Zoo and Birdlife Australia aims to hold the population steady. The billboards of ‘Just Holding Out’ call attention to the disappearing Regent song through the yellow glyphs and holes.

image credits to the artist

About the artist

Ro Murray and Mandy Burgess’s collaborative art practice is in Dharug and Gundungurra country. After past lives as architects, they studied Fine Arts at the National Art School. Using a palette of ‘building blocks’ they create large-scale installations about the environment. Since 2015 they have been selected in several Art Prizes including Eden Unearthed and North Sydney and presented several solo exhibitions including ‘Lost Song’ at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Katoomba 2022, about the near extinction of the Regent honeyeater, which won a CREATE NSW grant for the audio component. They have exhibited in the Canberra Art Biennial in 2020 and 2022.