If you listen to the weather forecast on the radio, you can often hear a reference to “the settled areas”. The expression refers to the farming country settled enthusiastically in the 19th century, whose original inhabitants were pushed aside and the land levelled, ploughed and mined. Prosperous communities thrived, the schools were full, grand buildings sprung up.

But now the tide of history has receded in many of these places. Circumstances have changed but the termites chew on, the summers are getting hotter and longer, the water tanks rarely fill but always leak.

Artists Sue Michael and Mark Thomson share a profound fondness for these lands – the Mid North, the Mallee, Eyre Peninsula. Love, meaning and happiness stubbornly persist. And the stillness at sunrise and sunset are magical.

Opening speaker: Ian Henschke