The shire’s unique Shack communities have been caught in art and print and the results were on show at the Hazelhurst Gallery last weekend.
Shack Life, an exhibition celebrating the three shack communities in the Royal National Park opened at the gallery.
The exhibition includes works by artists Reg Mombassa, Gillian Rhys, Annalisa Ferraris and Lucy O’Doherty.
Coinciding with the opening, architecture critic and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly came to the shire at part of the Australian Heritage Festival on Saturday, April 22 to launch a new book on the history of the shack community, Shack Life by Ingeborg van Teeseling.
Shack Life tells the story of the three small beachside communities in the Royal National Park fought to save their beachside shacks.
The shacks, located at Little Garie, Era and Burning Palms, were built on freehold land prior to its incorporation into the Royal National Park and were listed on the State Heritage Register in 2012.
The shack communities of the Royal National Park have a long tradition of association with the arts.
Hal Missingham, the Director of the Art Gallery of NSW from 1945 to 1971 had a shack and invited many artist friends to visit, including Margaret Olley, Max Dupain and David Boyd.
Subsequent generations of artists have continued this tradition.
The Shack Life exhibition is showing at the Hazelhurst Gallery until May 2.
