Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree commissions

Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree features over 160 works of art including colonial paintings, twentieth-century art and work by leading contemporary artists.

Alongside artworks from the University of Melbourne’s collections and major loans from across Australia, the exhibition presents five commissions by Jane E. Brown, Dean Cross, megan evans, Janet Laurence and Jazz Money.

The following works can be seen as part of Ngarn Wa’ngal from 10 July until 21 November 2026.

Jane E. Brown

1,8-Cineole

Photographer Jane E. Brown’s research into the photography of Russell Grimwade, in particular his glass-plate negatives and carbon prints made for An Anthography of the Eucalypts (1920/30), has resulted in a series of compelling photographs of gum blossom and gumnuts.

Brown’s deep knowledge of the history, chemistry and alchemy of photography led to experimentation with developing techniques. Remarkably, she has found a way to print her photographs using eucalyptus oil as the developing agent. This inspired her series title 1,8-Cineole, which is the chemical name for eucalyptol, the primary compound found in eucalyptus oil.

Dean Cross

There are 1000 ways to change the world, but you only need one

An artist of Worimi descent , Dean Cross will present There are 1000 ways to change the world, but you only need one, an installation of balls holding the seeds of a manna gum, encased in paper pulp designed to break down and help the seeds germinate. At the close of this exhibition, they will be returned to Country. Referencing the Birrarung landscape and the vulnerability of eucalypt species under climate change, the work reflects themes of regeneration and ecological futures.

"I am often struck by the incomprehensibility of the scale of the universe. It feels deliberate, necessary. Like a protective cloak shielding my small human mind from imploding. I wonder if a eucalypt seed feels the same way.

On a small parcel of Walbunja Country two placentas, grown simultaneously inside a single womb, were placed underground at the base of a pre-invasion manna gum during Ceremony. Now, in that same spot, a new twin-branched manna gum has sprouted. With the right care, it will outlive us all.

This sculpture was made collaboratively with many hands and minds. Marrangbu (thank you) to everyone who contributed."

A short story written by Cross can be found in the exhibition’s accompanying publication.

megan evans

Gust
Remanence

For Ngarn Wa’ngal, Melbourne-based interdisciplinary artist megan evans was invited to revise an earlier installation, Swarm (2009). This new installation, Gust, is created from hundreds of gum leaves that will swirl up the Potter Museum’s stairwell wall.

"Gust is made of hundreds of multicoloured eucalyptus leaves gathered over a thirty-year period. It follows the design of the wind as it moves up the stairs. The black leaves at the climax of the gust are from burnt trees around my mother’s house in Chum Creek, which was in the centre of the Black Saturday bushfires… I have collected most of the leaves from Boonwurrung Country, where I live, while others have come from Melbourne University campuses across Victoria."

megan evans’ second work, Remanence, is a large-scale animation of leaves projected onto a vertical screen in the atrium. The green leaves fall and the leaves left behind move of their own accord, as though they had a life beyond the digitisation of their images. The leaves movements are accompanied by magpies carolling, pobblebonk frogs croaking and the sound of leaves crunching underfoot

Janet Laurence

An Incantation for a Eucalypt

An Incantation for a Eucalypt is a layered installation by leading Australian artist Janet Laurence, whose practice examines our physical, cultural and conflicting relationship to the natural world.

"To bring you the wonder and the world of a tree.

Here is a gathering together of images, stories, matter, and fragments of our beloved eucalyptus trees.

Eucalyptus wood is transformed into a rough cabinet to house archival materials and rare books from The University of Melbourne along with tree oils and essences from the Victorian Herbarium.

Botanical fragments and objects from the forest and my studio weave into these collections, creating the incantation and the alchemical transformation of nature into art."

Jazz Money

in embrace

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet, artist and filmmaker whose cross-disciplinary practice is rooted in language, narrative and First Nations legacies of place. Through poetry and art, Money honours the past while carrying responsibility into the future, sustaining the oral traditions of First Nations storytelling – a living instrument of care on and for this continent.

in embrace is a floor-based poem accompanied by a moving image of rising smoke, opening the exhibition’s first room dedicated to First Nations perspectives. Money’s voice can be heard softly reading their poem.

In many First Nations cultures, including the artist’s Wiradjuri culture, smoke is used to mark moments of ceremony and significance. Here they are inspired by the act of welcoming a new baby to the world with the burning of green gum leaves.

A second poem by Money, ‘Curled leaf promise’, can be found in the exhibition’s accompanying publication.

These are outcomes of Miegunyah Creative Fellowships.

Sophie Cunningham

The first Miegunyah Creative Fellowship was held by writer Sophie Cunningham AM who has a passion for trees and broader environmental issues. Cunningham spent many months immersed in Russell Grimwade’s library, held in the University of Melbourne’s Rare Books collection.

“My criteria for choosing which of the extraordinary and wide-ranging collection of books to read from the library was that the book be about eucalyptus or otherwise mention them. I focused on white explorers’ diaries or commentary thereon as well as works on the identification of eucalyptus written by key figures from colonial Australia’s botanical world.”

Cunningham’s outcome can be read here. Her research continues with a Eucalypt Australia Dahl Fellowship with anticipated publication in 2027.

Related content

Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree

Exploring the eucalypt as a source of creative inspiration tracing its influence through Australian art history and in contemporary art practice.

Eucalypts: A Story in Twenty Trees — an extract

A powerful reflection on eucalyptus trees, colonial science and conservation, drawn from Sophie Cunningham’s Eucalypts: A Story in Twenty Trees.

Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree publication

A landmark publication dedicated to the eucalypt and the art it inspires.