Art exhibition: Flight Lines by Nadia Waters

When

3 September to 5 December 2026.

Open daily, 9am to 4pm.

Where

Pilliga Forest Discovery Centre, Pilliga National Park

Accessibility

Easy

Grade

Easy

Bookings

Free entry

Nadia Waters’ exhibition, Flight Lines: Bird drawings of the Pilliga, highlights the beauty of birds living in the Pilliga. This landscape is a combination of eastern and western climates, linking together Warrumbungle National Park and Mount Kaputar National Park. It’s a monumental rewilding conservation area for valuable ecosystems, rich in biodiversity and rugged beauty.

The Pilliga is also home to over 200 bird species, and Waters has drawn both common and threatened species. The chatty grey-crowned babbler, cunning channel-billed cuckoo and superb, swift and turquoise parrots are all part of the flock you’ll see in her work at the Pilliga Forest Discovery Centre. The striking colours of the sacred kingfisher and purple swamphen contrast with the subtle-toned plumage of the owlet nightjar and malleefowl.

Most of the 43 bird artworks in this exhibition are chalk-on-cardboard drawings. Waters has also included some metal bird silhouettes that fly together in a friend group, giving the impression of a flight of birds, free and high in a big country skyline. Her repurposing of cardboard as a drawing surface and including metal three-dimensional birds highlights sustainability and the beauty in the ordinary. Walters uses the softness and gentle quality of chalk to emphasise the birds’ vulnerability in our fragile climate and their lightness in the air.

Flight Lines aims to promote an appreciation for environmental conservation, to celebrate birds and inspire a sense of respect, joy and love for our beautiful natural world. Waters says: 'For me, beauty lives in the simple things, like the element of joy in finding a bird feather.'

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