Telling rural tales
The barren and harsh landscapes of the Monaro’s farmland may be one of Canberra’s nearest rural neighbours, but in many ways the area is so different it may as well be the surface of the moon.
The bitterly cold, treeless plains and towering inhospitable alpine mountain ranges are historically and notoriously hard landscapes to live on and to farm. They are landscapes which attract only the most dedicated, or crazy, or both.
They are also landscapes that ANU honours student Laura Clarke knows only too well. Clarke, who is coming to the end of a New Media Arts degree, grew up in the town of Nimmitabel, near Cooma. Her family have farmed that harsh land for more than 50 years. Over time, her family like so many others on the Monaro, have become part of the rich tapestry of lives and stories of the area.