INSPIRE: Jumping into peat bog led to unique marriage of art and science for Walpole’s Dr Elizabeth Edmonds

It was when she was waist high in a peat bog that Elizabeth Edmonds had an epiphany and realised what she wanted to do for a living. It wasn’t then that she decided to be an artist or gallery owner — that came later — but the murky mud bath simply confirmed her desire to investigate its icy depths, and the icy depths of lots more peat bogs just like it. She was an undergraduate at the University of WA at the time and the mud in question came from Boggy Lake, west of Walpole, an area with which she has fallen in love. Some 30 years and a PhD later, Dr Edmonds is a renowned paleoecologist whose research tracks vegetation histories, looking down a microscope at fossil pollen in peats to see how the environment and climate has changed a landscape over many thousands of years. She’s also a respected artist, who often uses those same pollens and peat to create her work, and she’s the owner of the Petrichor Gallery in Walpole. It’s an enthralling marriage of art and science, each inspiring the other and seemingly impossible to separate either in her life or in conversation. Speaking with her, she dances between the two, linking the threads on how her science has influenced her art, and how her art has driven her research. Dr Edmonds immerses the listener in her passion for both as she holds forth on the wonders of peat, pollen, charcoal, landscapes, exhibitions, microscopes, fire, vegetation — finding connections in her captivating way until you feel sufficiently enthused and inspired to jump into the nearest peat bog yourself. “I love the layering of landscapes, the history of landscapes,” she says. “That history can be long or short, but peats are the medium for that. “Painting with peats is really tactile and so exciting because when you use them you automatically have a painting which could be a thousand years old, or 10 thousand years old. “I also use rainwater to mix my watercolours so that adds even more connectivity because there are microfossils in the rainfall that could have been blown by the wind from anywhere. “It’s how the South West fits into the bigger picture — there are so many layers of complexity, I just love it.” The focus of her research currently is with the Peat Project, which is investigating the history of the peats in the Walpole Wilderness Area so they can be better managed. And, of course, that research is also providing Dr Edmonds with materials for her painting. “Peat areas are subtle and precious and there is still much we don’t know,” she says. “They may be only 3 per cent of Australian land, but they hold 30 per cent of its soil carbon. “Once the dating process has been completed on our project samples we should know more; in six months time we should have a much better understanding of a chronological time frame. “And I am obviously squirrelling away information and material to use for future artistic projects. “I plan to do an exhibition of the project, but that’s a couple of years away.” She’s at pains to stress that the peat she turns into paint for her art has been acquired through her research and gathered with permits or permissions. Also on the cards is a project looking at fire in the landscape which is likely to be a collaboration with other scientists — and another opportunity for an artistic exhibition. Dr Edmonds is no stranger to exhibiting her work for her piece with the tingle trees, A Tale of Two Trees, earned her the Eucalypt Australia Dahl Fellowship in 2023 and earlier this year inspired UWA academic Dr Sarah Drummond to profile her in an installation for the WA State Library called The Art and Science of the Tingles. She opened the Petrichor Gallery with husband David in 2016 with the aim of showcasing the natural beauty of the landscape and promoting regional Australian artists. Petrichor is a word which describes the smell which accompanies the first rain after a warm, dry spell and she wants the gallery, housed in a beautiful building in Nockolds Street, to be as welcoming as its name implies. “We feature contemporary and abstract art which is a response to the landscape we live in,” she says. “The building has a lovely light, and we also use music to make it a whole experience and encourage people to stay and look — and to come back. “It’s become quite a deliberate way of engaging the community in different ways so they can appreciate and have an awareness of the area. Want to be engaged in conversation with Dr Elizabeth Edmonds? How could you not? Just bring your boots. A peat bog awaits.