Lee Point Art Project 2024
Updates
An art exhibition is at the Art Warehouse, 23 Daly St, Darwin 4-18 April 2024.
Entries can be viewed here; on-line entries . Listen to The Thin Green Line by Merillee Mills, audio engineered by Ben Andrews.
Make Your Footprint to Save Lee Point
Putting Pictures to a Poem about Lee Point –
The Thin Green Line by Adam Foster
Last stanza (stanza 11)
Binybara is under siege. Bulldozers are at the gate,
We have precious little time to save Lee Point from its fate.
With this moment upon us, here’s a question to you all –
On which side of the thin green line do your footprints fall?
Closing date for entries – 17 March 2024
This Art project is all about community engagement, raising awareness of the fight to Save Lee Point and to inspire positive change. It is free and anyone is welcome to submit an artwork.
How to Enter
1.Read The Thin Green Line by Adam Foster (see below)
2.Choose one stanza and send us an artwork to convey what the stanza means to you. Please check on-line entries before deciding.
3.Provide your name, contact number, artwork with stanza number and
4.Email your details and artwork(s) to friendsofleepoint@gmail.com
This artwork needs to be visual and can be a landscape painting, drawing or prints. A photo of each artwork (suitable for a good quality A3 landscape print) needs to be submitted digitally. All entries will go into a lucky draw to win $200.
Please read the Terms and Conditions before entering.
Selected artworks will be exhibited at a venue after the closing date for entries.
Closing date for entries – 17 March 2024
Email entries to: friendsofleepoint@gmail.com
The Thin Green Line
At the Top-End of Australia, right on Darwin’s door
A patch of unique habitat clings to a sandy shore.
This coastal eco-fragment sits on Larrakia land,
Whose connection to this place is embedded in its sand.
The place is Binybara, it’s a diamond in the rough.
A biodiverse jewel in a climate that is tough.
Binybara (or Lee Point, as it usually is known),
Has largely been ignored as Darwin’s urban sprawl has grown.
But now it’s the key to Darwin’s last wildlife corridor,
Linking essential habitat for creatures to explore.
Mangroves guard its creeks amid paperbark and she-oak stands,
And rare old-growth eucalypts populate its dry woodlands.
There’s sand-dunes and grass meadows, rainforest and cycad groves.
It’s really no surprise that tourists flock to it in droves.
A menagerie of creatures call Binybara home,
From those that live as residents to those that leave to roam.
Thousands of shorebirds fly in from the northern hemisphere,
They feed and grow for six months then abruptly disappear.
Gouldian finches love the hollow branches of old trees,
Sharing space with dollarbirds, cockatoos and stingless bees.
Turtles nest upon the shore, kites and buzzards rule the skies,
While lizards slink through long grass stalking sleeping dragonflies.
There’s wallabies and bandicoots, tree frogs and microbats,
And Rufous Owls that like to hunt black-footed native rats.
Given this host of creatures – some endangered in the wild,
It beggars belief that some would have this treasure trove defiled.
Lee Point has weathered cyclones and the wild storms of the Wet,
Yet it seems that greedy ignorance is now its gravest threat.
The Commonwealth, in its wisdom, says Lee Point cannot stay,
It must be cleared for housing – there is just no other way.
So, it has set a plan in motion that is half-arsed to be sure,
That has scant regard for rigour and pays lip-service to the law.
Eco-experts have been ignored, its Custodians denied,
As bloody-minded bureaucrats take a power-tripping ride.
This extinction economics is like burning down your house,
It’s long past time that we demand our leaders have more nous.
Politicians must stop touting green-washed rhetoric and lies,
And bleating worthless platitudes as nature slowly dies.
But this legacy of destruction seems not to resonate,
For when there’s money to be made, they shut down all debate.
Binybara is under siege. Bulldozers are at the gate,
We have precious little time to save Lee Point from its fate.
With this moment upon us, here’s a question to you all –
On which side of the thin green line do your footprints fall?
The Thin Green Line © Adam Foster 2024
This art project is brought to you by Friends of Lee Point Inc. in conjunction with Plan: Planning Action Network Inc.
Lee Point Art Competition 2022
This art project closed in 2022
“What you like about Lee Point”
This exhibition runs 7 May to 6 June 2022 at Casuarina Library – View prize winners and award ceremony
View entries for People’s Choice Award
Lee Point peninsular contains most of the habitats found in the Top End, and its natural beauty and rich biodiversity makes Darwin a special place. This area is enjoyed by families, naturalists, mountain bike riders, birdwatchers, fishermen, campers and bushwalkers.
Our aim for this exhibition is to encourage children and families to better understand, enjoy and appreciate what this wonderful peninsular has to offer.
The exhibition shows (172) visual artworks on “What you like about Lee Point” and was created by (168) young people aged under 19 years living in the Territory. Friends of Lee Point in conjunction with Planning Action Network organized this exhibition in a time when the natural beauty and biodiversity of Lee Point is under threat.
Special thanks to:
- Sponsors (who wish to remain anonymous) – for generously providing the prize money.
- City of Darwin – for providing the venue and display boards
- Darwin Visual Arts – Jenny Shepherd (chairperson) for judging the artworks
- Officeworks Darwin – for assisting with printing costs
Artworks for the Lee Point Art Exhibition came from the school competition below.
Lee Point Art Competition
What you like about Lee Point
(Why Lee Point is important to Darwin)
School Competition (under 19 years) – closed on 8 April
The competition is free and open to anyone 18 years or younger in the Territory. The artwork needs to be visual and can be painting, drawing, prints, photo, sculpture or short video. The artwork will be judged on its message, uniqueness and art characteristics.
Prizes will be awarded in three age categories (under 8 years, 8-14 years, 14-19 years) by an independent panel of judges. Total value of prizes (Officeworks vouchers) is approx $3000.
A photo of each artwork (suitable for a good quality A4 print) or short video (if submitting a video) is required – see entry form above. Selected artworks will be exhibited on-line and at Casuarina Library after the closing date for entries. Entrants can remain anonymous if they wish – see Entry Form for conditions.
Closing date for entries – 8 April, winners announced at exhibition opening, 7 May 2022.
Why should my school enter this art competition?
Inspiration for artwork:
Living with migratory shorebirds booklet
Margaret Preston and other artists
This competition and exhibition is brought to you by Friends of Lee Point and Plan: the Planning Action Network Inc.
Download: Lee Point Art Competition poster. pdf
Contact: friendsofleepoint@gmail.c
If you would like to help out you can donate funds to the Lee Point Art Competition Prize Pool