Goody Barrett / Goondoolbine (Piccaninny Rocks)

C.1930 – 2010

Goody was born at Old Lissadell Station, c. 1930. Goody related the story of how her boss, Paddy McNamara, taught her domestic duties as well as riding. As she grew up on the station, her elders taught her bush tucker gathering and all the Dreamtime stories she painted and passed on to the youngsters at Warmun, where she lived. She spoke of her Station owner employers with fondness, and left when her last “boss” passed away, to settle at Turkey Creek.

She painted with the best – the late Queenie McKenzie, Madigan Thomas, and her sister Lena. Goody always displayed a sense of adventure with technique in ochre painting – she liberally used the thick ochre, very often bulking the black colour up with charcoal, as did the very early ochre Masters.

Goody was very aware of her culture and devoted her life to passing this on by way of paintings, stories and teaching.

Goody’s paintings are strong, each one different in theme but invariably depicting her dreaming stories and her country. Her works are represented Australia-wide and Internationally, and are much sought after.

Exhibitions
Goody’s work has been included in prestigious Group Exhibitions in Melbourne (four with William Mora Galleries), Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin as well as Internationally, alongside major artists Paddy Bedford, Freddie Timms, Rusty Peters and Peggy Patrick.

Selected Exhibitions
• Blood on the Spinifex, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2002-2003
• Rhapsodies in Country, GrantPirrie at Art Miami, USA, 2002

One of the major rivers in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia is Bow River. Originating in the high ‘top country’ of Bow River cattle station it winds through its lands for some fifty miles, then across the vast neighbour, Lissadell Station, to finally empty into the mighty Ord River just upstream from where it enters the largest dam in Australia, Lake Argyle.

Adjacent to the Bow River Bridge, where it crosses the Great Northern Highway and into Lissadell, is an area known to Goody as Piccaninny Rocks, or Goondoolbine, which features huge, smooth rocks thrown up in some ancient cataclysmic eruption.