Page 19 - Port Douglas Magazine 46

art. art.

butterflies and other pollinators. Her passion for

indigenous and native vegetation has deepened
while volunteering at the local council nursery.
Her environmental care extends naturally to the

coastline. Coastal clearing, often for ocean-view
Just south of Port Douglas, where the developments, removes native vegetation that
rainforest leans towards the sea tide, sits anchors dunes, leaving the shoreline exposed
to erosion. Around her home, Rosey quietly
Oak Beach, a quiet stretch of coastline replants where she can, favouring casuarinas
that shapes the life and creative pulse and other stabilisers that once held the sand in
place.
of artist Rosey Cummings. She collects

sun-bleached rope, discarded fishing line, “It breaks my heart,” she says, “watching trees
and other coastal vegetation vanish that used
fragments of plastic and other washed-up to hold this beach in place.” Her art, garden

debris, giving them a second life while and activism are woven from the same fibres: an extraordinary woman who carried it on a
plane. In one of the studio rooms, piles of rope
telling the urgent story of our threatened grounded in respect for the land and shaped by are sorted into strands waiting to become bowls,
a desire to help restore it.
coastline. TECHNIQUE, TRADITION AND THE vessels or other densely woven and stitched
STORIES MATERIALS TELL forms reminiscent of coral, sea creatures, and
the tangled patterns of nature, including delicate

Rosey’s weaving journey began years ago, when jellyfish-like shapes made from natural looking
Her home studio, tucked behind a flourishing garden of Margie and Yvette, two women living at Cooya, plastic mooring rope.

natives, ferns and winding vines, feels like an extension of invited her to sit with them weekly, weaving Her technique is slow, intentional and physically

the landscape itself, a place alive with birds, butterflies and with natural fibres and sharing knowledge. demanding. For works made from Alexander

other creatures drawn to the plants she grows. Standing She honours those teachings, and those of palm inflorescences, she soaks the pieces several

there, Rosey says something that stays with me: “This First Nations weavers whose workshops she times before weaving. For others, she must strip

landscape guides everything I make.” has attended, while emphasising that her work and tease rope apart and stitch using the rope
comes from respect and inspiration rather than strands themselves, a process requiring many Coastal Requiem; Vine wreaths,
Her practice is anchored, quite literally, in the land and sea cultural appropriation. spider lily string, seeds.

around her. She works with weaving and environmental hours a day over several days and often harsh on
sculpture, but the materials she uses are far from She recalls something a First Nations weaver the hands.

traditional. Most are natural, found or recycled, gathered once told her during a weaving session, that she “It’s rare to find rope strong enough to stitch Vessel, crafted from found wire, old fishing line,

during near-daily walks with a bucket along Oak Beach or felt the maternal presence of her grandmother in with,” she explains. “It’s a love-hate relationship. a wooden reel and discarded crab pots, speaks to

collected during beach clean-ups with her sister and the her hands as she wove, a moment that continues The colours are beautiful, but I wish they weren’t the consequences of fishing-industry debris. No

Tangaroa Blue Foundation across Far North Queensland. to resonate. here at all.” Boundaries, a collaboration using rope collected
Other pieces come from like-minded environmental in the Outer Hebrides by a local marine biologist
caretakers who, like Rosey, refuse to let coastal debris Inside her studio, she shows me an enormous FUNCTIONAL, CONCEPTUAL, AND friend, underscores that ocean pollution knows

vanish unnoticed. handcrafted wooden weaving frame, made for ALWAYS SITE-SPECIFIC no borders; debris travels on currents from the
her in her early twenties by a dear friend and USA, South East Asia, the Pacific and beyond.

Weathered ropes, tangled fishing line, broken plastic master woodworker, Neville Sellick, a highly Some works are functional, pieces she has

pieces, oxidised wire and palm inflorescences are regarded Victorian artisan who has since passed. rescued and given a second life, like the sun- A series of Anemones reveals how plastic mimics

reimagined as vessels, sculptural forms or coiled “sand It spent years stored in her parents’ shed until she lounges she restrung with beach rope. life on the sea floor, entangling creatures that
bowls”, each echoing the story of the shoreline where they became determined to bring it north, an almost “A bit prickly,” she laughs, “but fine with a towel, mistake it for habitat or food. Rosey occasionally

were found. impossible feat, eventually achieved through and they taught me about warp and weft. Tension accepts commissions, but the materials she finds

determination, excess baggage, and the help of dictate what’s possible. The ocean, not the client,
ART AS ENVIRONMENTAL WITNESS is everything.” Others are conceptual. Ocean often decides the direction of the work.

Before settling permanently in Far North Queensland, A PRACTICE OF CARE
Rosey worked in Melbourne’s public health system as a Spikey Creature; Twined de-knotted crab pot string, stick, rusted fencing wire.

nurse in sexual health. After moving north, she continued Walking through Rosey’s studio feels like
in the same field, often travelling to remote communities stepping into a dialogue between nature and

to support local health facilities. Though she doesn’t human impact, between decay and regeneration.
explicitly connect this work to her art, moving through Each artwork is a record of place: Oak Beach, the
Sun Vessel; Beach Rope, rusted fencing wire, Coiled and Stitched.
different landscapes and communities shaped her sense Coral Sea, the forest-edged dunes that surround

of place and sharpened her awareness of how deeply her home.
people rely on and connect with healthy environments. In a world where marine debris threatens
WEAVING THE Life in the tropics offered a different rhythm, and a deeper ecosystems from the Great Barrier Reef to the

appreciation for the fragility of coastal ecosystems.
North Atlantic, Rosey’s work serves as both

The debris she gathers now lives on in her sculptural art and activism, a reminder that beauty and
responsibility can be woven together, and that
works, not as trash transformed into beauty, but as
TIDES: The Art and witnesses to the pressures on our marine world. every shoreline carries stories worth preserving.
“As I work,” Rosey says, “I reflect on the structures, forms

Collective, and her work has appeared in
and colours of the materials and where they’re collected. Rosey is a member of the Port Douglas Artists
Purpose of Rosey What are they telling me? How much do I deconstruct exhibitions across the region, including galleries
in Cairns, Call of the Running Tide; Go Troppo

them? How do I see them differently?” Her practice is
and Escape Artists in Port Douglas and at the
both a conversation and a confrontation: delight in the
Cummings colours and textures shaped by the sea, and sadness that Tablelands Regional Gallery.
they exist at all.
In 2026, visitors and art lovers can follow her
A GARDEN THAT TEACHES, A COASTLINE THAT
practice on Instagram @rosey.cummings or
NEEDS HEALING contact the Port Douglas Artist Inc. to arrange
your very own studio visit at Oak Beach. Enjoy!
Rosey’s home garden is as much a part of her creative
life as her studio, a wild, vibrant space filled with native Rosey Cummings

Words By Maura Mancini plants, many chosen specifically to attract the local birds, portdouglasartists.com.au