Life Support (2017-2019)

This project was supported by funding from the School of Art and Design and the ANU Research School of Humanities and the Arts.
Habitat loss is a critical threat to Australian biodiversity. In this collaborative project, US architect Joyce Hwang (University at Buffalo) worked with Mitchell Whitelaw and Darren Le Roux of ACT Parks and Conservation to create an artificial habitat structure — Life Support — at Barrer Hill in the Molonglo River Reserve, in western Canberra. Constructed from salvaged pieces of a 400-year old Yellow Box eucalyptus, Life Support is enriched with hollows, perches and crevices, as well as networked cameras to record visiting wildlife. For more information see:
- Molonglo Life - browse images from the Barrer Hill cameras (http://molonglo.life)
- Life Support video (ACT Parks and Conservation) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avBsqoB7RI8)
- Media coverage in the Canberra Times (https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6225977/saving-the-molonglo-from-dead-trees-comes-new-life/) and UB Now (http://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2019/06/hwang-life-support.html)