Willman on Hoddle-Selwyn map

One of the inspiring aspects of the Castlemaine Art Museum is its context: the wealth of artists and other experts in the region.

Over many years geologist Clive Willman has volunteered his services to CAM identifying, cataloguing and interpreting geological items in the collection. Working with co-curator Jenny Long, Clive brought his prodigious knowledge to articulate a particularly fruitful vein through the art and museum collections for the exhibition

Hoddle-Selwyn Map (1853), Dja Dja Wurrung Country, ink and watercolour on cotton rag paper, geological survey of Victoria.

Stonework is an exemplary exhibition drawing together science and art through seemingly disparate aspects of the collection from CAM's historical First Nations stone tools, 19th and 20th Century painting; geological specimens, and contemporary art.

Installation view, ADB, Deep Cuts, 2023, yellow box vessel, river stone, gold leaf, enamel paint.

One of the most intriguing works exhibited is the Hoddle-Selwyn map on loan from the Geological Survey of Victoria. Visually engaging and remarkable for its historical significance the map is nevertheless hard to read on the gallery wall. For this reflection, Clive Willman has created a video illuminating its importance to the settlement of the goldfields as well as evidence of First Nations management of country. Click the link to view the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7xcuh2W63E

Clive Willman

August 2024

Clive Willman

Clive Willman started his career as a geologist at Chewton’s Wattle Gully mine in 1980. He spent 21 years with the Geological Survey of Victoria’s mapping team in central Victoria and the highlands of eastern Victoria but has now returned to consulting for the local gold exploration and mining industry. He has contributed to numerous scientific papers and books on Victoria’s geology. Clive was awarded the Geological Society of Australia’s Selwyn Medal in 2003 for a ‘significant contribution of high calibre to Victorian geology’. Clive has produced a number of science education films for his YouTube channel ‘Geology Films’.

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