The painting was inspired by an encounter with a gathering of the Bristol Owners Club of Australia on an outing to the Bellbird Reserve on the Yarra River in Kew and . The gleaming rounded, seductive shapes of these classic British motor cars greeted us as we drove into the carpark. We then took in the scene closer to the river with people preparing picnics while canoes and kayaks were being readied for launching. In the background and creating a continual cacophonous white noise were hundreds of fruit bats or flying foxes, hanging from the native trees, mostly on the far side of the Yarra which was bathed in bright sunlight but some bats were also hanging off upper branches of riverside trees on our side of the river. Many of the fruit bats appear as dark tadpole or tear-drop forms contrasting with the bright yellows, oranges and greens of the foliage on the Alphington side of the river. An old bike stands propped up in the lower left corner and a sign along the curving pathway that goes up through the picture from carpark to river jetty declares that Nudging activities are being conducted in the area, which refers to the shifting of the bat colony up the river from their original city location.

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Private Collection