I recently had the privilege of spending time on K’gari Island, the world’s largest sand island and a UNESCO World Heritage Area, resting on Butchulla Country. This immersive field trip was delivered by UniSC, Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance and The Refinery and based at the Dilli Village Research Station, where I had the opportunity to engage in deep listening, place-responsive research, and creative experimentation.

K’gari is estimated to be over 750,000 years old, its form shaped by the relentless and rhythmic movement of water. The volumes of sand carried along the eastern coast are staggering, around 500,000 cubic metres of sand move north past each metre of shoreline every year. These longshore drifts have formed the island’s extensive dune systems, which are still shifting and transforming under the forces of wind and tide.

What struck me most was how water not only creates but sustains this living island. K’gari holds the world’s only tall rainforest growing entirely on sand and more than 100 freshwater lakes, many of them perched lakes, suspended above the water table by layers of organic matter and sand. These systems are delicate, ephemeral, and entirely dependent on the movement and memory of water.

Each morning, I woke to the changing sounds of water, the tides drawing breath through the Great Sandy Strait. On K’gari, water is not static. It is dynamic, active, and filled with agency. It sculpts, reshapes, and remembers. Twice daily, the immense tidal movements flood and drain the coastal wetlands, blurring boundaries between land and sea.

 

This field trip has been a grounding and generative experience. As part of my ongoing practice-led research into environmental systems and digital media, I’ve been gathering videos, image sets, sound recordings, and data, thinking about how creative technologies might express the agency of water. 

Water doesn’t just mark space, it carves time. On K’gari, this temporal dimension of water is visceral. It holds stories of ancient formation, of climate shifts, and of ongoing ecological transformation. My time here has challenged me to think beyond representation, to consider how collaboration with environmental forces might shape the work itself.

Enormous thanks to UniSC and The Refinery, Megan Williams and Leah Barclay for facilitating this unique opportunity, and Toby Gifford and Marian Tubbs for sharing skills and inspiration and the other incredible artists who shared in this experience. This will flow directly into the next iteration of my project, as I continue to explore how we might embody the wisdom and agency of water through art.