I’m off on the road again…back to near where this photo was taken in 2010…any ideas where it is?

I have been going through a few of the last ever rolls of Ektachrome 100VS I’ll ever shoot from the old Bare Sand Island Gunnery Range, another favourite film hits the dust along with Kodachrome and Ektrachrome SW. The options for colour film buffs are narrowing down to a few players…will we will all end up as velvia clones?

The crater left by a 500 pound bomb in the dunes on Bare Sand Island © Glenn Campbell

An aerial practice bomb embedded in the dunes on Bare Sand Island.

Late night driving on the way back from the Barkly last week was the first time in months that I have seen the stars after a long, cloudy wet season. My old mate Andrew McMillan used to extoll the virtues and benefits of ” Just lying down on the Highway and looking at the stars… Just don’t fall asleep ”

Michael Shirrefs just finished a segment with me rabbiting on over Radio National’s Creative Instinct airwaves about the NT Arts Touring company ART Back which is featuring my exhibition “Shrine” on a Territory wide tour this year, we also discussed my Walkley award winning essay Stolen Spirits more of which can be seen below if you feel like refreshing your memory…Given the subject matter I have been dealing with lateley I am wondering if I am becoming a little too morbid?

My mate Andrew McMillan died yesterday and I’m not sure the place he held in my heart will ever be filled…Not sure I want it to.
The pictures below were taken in his beloved Larrimah a place only Andrew could love.

Here’s the last time he got behind the wheel

and in a rare moment of self preservation,suggested I get off the middle of the Stuart Highway at 3 in the morning and turn around as a bush fire approached on both sides.

After his diagnosis he chose to go out working , constantly writing and dreaming up new projects like his latest band ” The Rattling Mudguards”

He was the only one that my motives for being in the Territory made sense to, and the big brother I never had.
Like many before me his bunker in Westralia St was my first port of call after I first arrived in Darwin 9 years ago, sitting opposite him surrounded by maps , drafts of novels , model airplanes and the assorted relics he took home after 3 decades of picking over the bones of the Territory I felt like I was at some bizzare job interview with Andrew the CEO of some mysterious organization that may or may not let me in on it’s secrets.
Our conversations were littered with gentle laughter and short pauses as he stopped talking to write down a choice phrase or anecdote for future use , with plans to come together for various projects that intrigued us both…The notion of history and place in a part of the country that had plenty of both if you chose to look as he wisely said “History is on the ground , you just have to look for it”…a bit of advice that I have followed to the letter resulting in our collaboration on my 2009 exhibition 42/45.
I have spent the morning listening to your voice brother, and I am crying!