PAINTINGS SOLD OUT

John Dyer has been in Australia painting with Banrock Station - the famous wine makers and conservationists.

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Painting 1

Bouncing by the Gum Tree 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

The Wine and Wetland Centre sits on a ridge overlooking the River Murray Valley. It is the hub where visitors can taste our wines and be launched into the amazing story of state of the art vineyards and restored wetlands along walking trails through the property. Typically blue skies with wispy clouds, rare regent parrots, kangaroos and coloured fruits of the ruby saltbush frame the vineyards and wetlands.

Painting 2

Pelican Roost 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

In the 1920's the River Murray changed from an ephemeral stream to a vast lake when the construction of lock 3 and its weir impounded the water. The raised level drowned many beautiful red gums on the floodplain which today provide fallen branches as roosting platforms for pelicans. The new level also filled the Banrock wetland permanently. Fish eating pelicans dine on the introduced carp that thrive in the new lake-like environment. At night the stars illuminate the ghostly gums.

Painting 3

Martha-Lilly Hill 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

Rain is precious in the desert. After slow soaking rains the rain lily quickly springs to life on the sandy terraces of the river valley for a short burst of flowering. The red floating fern Azolla forms carpets in Banrock Creek that are undone by pelicans landing. Thirsty red gum trees hug the water's edge.

Painting 4

Cool Cockatoos under the Hot Sun 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

The vineyards flourish on the well drained sandy loam soils above the valley. The hot summer sun demands that the vines are irrigated to keep them alive. Careful irrigation is dripped to the vine and shady vine canopies produce premium bunches of grapes for our wines. The gregarious sulphur-crested cockatoos gather and screech in the gums and in the cool vineyard.

Painting 5

Hot Sunset over the ancient Mallee Tree 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

Mallee trees are multi-stemmed eucalypts that take several hundred years to from hollows. This oldest mallee tree on Banrock Station is probably 500 years old and is full of hollows that provide homes for insects, lizards, bats and parrots like the mallee ringneck. Occasionally the biggest lizards, the goanna, will enter the hollows to dine. Blue bush flourishes after rain in the mallee and the massive tree roots store water for survival during drought.

Painting 6

Wine and Wetlands 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

This is the signature of Banrock Station created by careful water management. The vineyard is watered by drippers to reduce evaporation. Soil moisture is monitored by probes to ensure the vines are given the right amount of water at the right time. The wetlands are dried out every two years to copy the natural flood/drought cycle of the river. The wetland plants and animals love the cycle of droughts and floods. Kangaroos graze on the fresh wetland sedges and grasses after spring floods and purple swamphens, yellow-billed spoonbills and many species of waders forage in the plant zone. Every visitor to Banrock Station has the opportunity to see this story.

Painting 7

Wandering through the Wetlands 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

The restoration of the wetland and the re-emergence of red gum forests, reeds and bullrushes provide food and shelter for more than 166 species of birds. This led to the development of the boardwalks along eight kilometres of trails that bring 20,000 people into the wetland - quietly and well informed. One of our rarest birds, the regent parrot, nests in red gum hollows and then flies to nearby mallee woodlands to forage - they are frequently seen darting through the wetland en-route.

Painting 8

Wetland Wildlife 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

The wine and wetland centre is beautifully blended into the mallee landscape overlooking the vineyards and wetlands. The arrival of bilbies, a small marsupial not seen here for more than 100 years, marks the commitment of Banrock Station to completely restoring the landscape. A ten kilometre predator proof fence has been built to exclude foxes, feral cats and rabbits and thus allow bilbies to live here again. White winged choughs work as a team to build mud cup nests from the surrounding soils, the same colour as the rammed-earth walls at the visitor centre. The choughs build their nests on the strongest mallee branches indicating the importance of old trees.

Painting 9

Bathing Baby Red Gums 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

Ephemeral rain lilies in yellow ochre sand dunes say thank you for rain and baby red gums and their living ancestors say thank you for precious water pumped from the river to keep them alive until the next river floodwaters arrive. The limestone cliffs mark the edge of the river valley and tell of millions of years of sea bed buildup that was carved down by the river just 700,000 years ago.

Painting 10

Blue Skies and Blazing Stars, Banrock 24 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas. £1500

The Banrock Station Wine and Wetland Centre is a wonderful place to relax and marvel at the vastness of the mallee woodlands, vineyards and wetlands and the wildlife that is returning here all set against blue skies and blazing stars, cheers!

INTERPRETATION OF JOHN DYER BANROCK STATION COLLECTION
By Tony Sharley, Manager, Banrock Station