Moonlite Studios, Mt Egerton

Moonlite Studios is a shared workshop on Wadawurrung Country where Ross Annels and I develop parallel and intersecting practices.

The studio name holds a few threads. It nods to Captain Moonlite, a nineteenth century bushranger linked to this region, remembered in part for his love for his companion James Nesbitt. We do not romanticise the violence of that history. We hold on to the trace of queer attachment and misfit survival as a reminder that other ways of living and caring have always existed here, even when they were punished or erased.

Moonlite also carries the echo of moonlighting. Many of the crafts and experiments that grow here come out of side sheds and after hours work, carried alongside other jobs and responsibilities. The studio holds woodcraft, sound, drawing, ecological material research and the slower rhythms that support them. We draw from many trades, research practices and methods to consider how making can move with place.

Ross shapes the public facing studio programs. My work moves alongside this, bringing its own pacing and investigations into materials and place.

The studio holds both practices without merging them, allowing each to deepen while sharing the same air, tools and rhythms of learning.

Moonlite Studios is held by Wadawurrung Country. We acknowledge the Wadawurrung People as the Traditional Custodians and honour their unceded sovereignty, culture and ongoing care for this place. We pay respect to Elders past and present and recognise the responsibilities of working and learning here.

(Left) Photograph of the Moon at Mount Egerton, Wadawurrung Country 2025.