Backtrack dieback -

Download this Map and the following brochures to find out how to make Sydney more resilient to the problem of Phytophthora (Dieback):

IF YOU SEE BUSHLAND VANDALISM IN WILLOUGHBY PHONE COUNCIL ON 97771000

Project Background
Willoughby Council’s environmental educators engaged our eco-art collective Tree Veneration Society as part of their 2024 Tree Festival to raise support for the natural environment, particularly because of the ongoing serious vandalism involving the illegal cutting and poisoning of 265 trees in 2023. The poisoning and cutting of trees, particularly at this previously unseen scale, creates ecosystem health problems within bushland reserves. You can hear the mayor talk further about the issue HERE.

Backtrack Dieback is an installation incorporating moving image, sculpture and web-based educational material; and involves collaboration with science researcher Tom Levick. Tom’s data collation identifies Phytophthora, commonly known as Dieback, as Willoughby’s largest ecosystem health problem. Dieback refers to the gradual deterioration of health in trees, which is usually caused by a combination of factors, such as disease and pathogens, insect attack and/or stressful climate conditions. Tom’s mapping, included above, shows the distribution of Phytophthora in Willoughby Council and our sculptural form creatively interprets Dieback whilst housing a projection.

In the moving image projection, the 1955 cartoon One Froggy Evening is intercut with archival material, found footage and present day recordings made in Willoughby and elsewhere. We apply the original cartoon’s story about human greed to the way that vandals used poison, drills and chainsaws to cut bushland reserve trees for better resident ocean views. Our version, The Lobbyist, presents some of the anti-public interest activity that enables the State and Federal governments to allow Dieback to flourish in Willoughby. The frog, standing in for all of the environment, stops singing when being exploited for wealth, always devolving into deadpan croaking in the presence of others and pointing to the devastation of the immediate environment and climate change impacts.

Gallery-goers can take a ‘business’ card from the installation that gives a URL to this page for the slow clean-up and prevention information along with Tom’s findings.