The Paddocks is a meditation on land, memory, and the role of the artist in acknowledging both the harm of the past and the possibilities for restorative futures.
Created in Nerre Nerre Warrene—now known as Dandenong Police Paddocks—a 500-hectare site of profound cultural significance that houses one of Melbourne’s
most notable Aboriginal cultural sites, this project delves into a landscape rich with a
65,000-year legacy. For millennia, the traditional custodians revered this area as a
vital meeting place for the Kulin nations; in the post-colonial era, it became headquarters for the Native Police Corps, a base for Aboriginal trackers, and the site for the Westernport District of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate. This layered
history of tradition, kinship, violence, cruelty, and ambivalence informs the work’s
exploration of the duplicity of place in today’s community, a colonial society that prefers to leave places such as these forgotten.
Through the process of making these photographs, Magee engages deeply with the land’s past and present, using her lens as a tool for reflection, repair, and a nuanced understanding of complex histories. Rooted in her own position as a settler, her
images advocate for care and preservation of this sacred space while also celebrating the intimate connections formed in nature.
The animals that call this space home exist in limbo of colonial notions of importance- not domesticated enough to be of use to humans, not wild enough to inspire awe from the community.
Instead, they live and die within the bounds of this space, left to decay in the open.
By photographing this place and all that inhabit it The Paddocks becomes a personal and collective dialogue with the land—a visual testament to how memory and history can be both haunting and healing.
