Moonbirds of Sentinel Island

Bass Strait has a 25-acre, uninhabited Island of rocks and tussocks with one small hut and a water tank.

It is 1973 and the Island is called Sentinel. At sunset, Elizabeth witnessed the Short-Tailed Shearwater or Moonbirds, flying in to feed their young on Sentinel Island and beyond.

Elizabeth says, “I witnessed a river of birds flying past me through the sky, for half an hour…… In that moment, I felt connected and a part of everything around me.”

Today, the Moonbirds on Sentinel Island have all perished due to plastic ingestion, food scarcity and climate-induced storms.

There are no more Moonbirds flying in to the Island at sunset.

Using fragile Dressmaking Pattern Paper hand dyed with natural dyes, Elizabeth has created a garment reflecting the fragile ecosystems all around.

We are a part of these ecosystems and what we do to these we are doing to ourselves.