Stories

I held a networking evening in Toowoomba library with Leilani Seeto, RASN officer based in Toowoomba with Ausdance. The room was filled with artists, cosplay enthusiasts, gallery directors, RADF officers from the regional council, organisers of art trails, woodworkers, emerging artists, potters and a writer (I’m so glad we had a writer!) Leilani and I talked about how we can help with projects, advice, and mentoring and the audience talked about challenges they face and shared their myriad, amazing projects.

Driving down long roads to small towns, I got a sense of the isolation that regional artists feel. It’s familiar to me, that feeling that somewhere people are networking, getting opportunities and being invited to things that you don’t even know about. I met an artist who runs an arts centre in her town, full of amazing, well-crafted fabric projects, and beautiful murals. She teaches local children through craft projects and  sees them as integral to the future of arts in her town.

In Surat, the majestic red and white wooden town hall with its soaring ceilings and art deco architecture houses a fledgling potter’s group. The Surat Pottery and Craft Group studio is furnished with old farmhouse tables, repurposed for ceramics with fibre cement tops. Light pours in from the square heritage windows and there is a sense of growth and excitement to this new facility.

Every town I visited had a beautiful art gallery run by the local council. These galleries create an incredible network of places to exhibit throughout regional Australia. They are run by volunteers and supported by council funding. The Dogwood Crossing Gallery in Miles had an exhibition by local artist Reggie Hyland exploring the history of the area through a well known (and thankfully vanquished) pest, the prickly pear.  Reggie’s graphic paintings turn the prickly pear and its nemesis the cactoblastis beetle into angular, decorative pattern and bright colour.

On my last day in Chinchilla I finally unpacked the 6 unfired porcelain bowls that had survived the road between Roma and Yuleba to use as demonstrations for the Making Art Work- from studio to production workshop. Grasses and Silver Dollar Eucalyptus gathered from the side of the road were the inspiration as we workshopped through a production process. The first pot was intricate and full of details and I simplified the design with input from the audience over the next six vessels. Finally, after much group consultation, real talk about skills and techniques, decision making for production lines, identifying markets, pricing, packaging, and Invoices tax and other boring (but essential) stuff we had 6 bowls, expressing the landscape with increasingly simple drawing and mark making. I couldn’t have done this workshop without the generosity and enthusiasm of local artist Kristen Flynn.

As I headed for home over the Bunya Mountains the clouds began to gather and by time I turned into the driveway the windscreen was splattered with fat drops. The distance is what makes the West so special. It’s also what makes it hard for artists. I look forward to building connections and hosting online events and tools to strengthen the bonds between the coast and the country. Can’t wait to go out again and drive down an empty road under the big sky.

The Dustarena is a purpose-built outdoor amphitheatre, part of a cultural tourism precinct with on-site accommodation, designed as an open platform for visiting artists and touring works. Outback Queensland’s new home for contemporary performance opened Saturday 25 April 2026 with The Dusty Hour. In this one-hour, 80s game show style variety night, Amanda’s passion for storytelling, audience experience, and spotlighting local culture comes alive.

Improvisation and innovation runs through everything here. In the making of the show, in the salvaged materials of the build, and the creative problem solving needed to make it all happen in remote Australia. The theatre doors were gifted by the Winton’s iconic Northern Gregory Hotel.  A follow spotlight was sourced from North Queensland. The stage floor was donated from a construction company in Emerald. Telegraph poles from somewhere near Maryborough. And when Winton flooded in March 2025 and again in January 2026, community rallied to move art installations and equipment to higher ground.

This spirit is felt in the Dustarena, and in The Dusty Hour, as the sun sets over the outdoor theatre, road trains roll on the horizon and Winton’s dark skies emerge.

The Dustarena’s seasonal program runs from May to October, with shows two-nights a week (Tuesdays and Saturdays), drawing tourism partners, sharing outback culture and encouraging visitors to stay an extra night.