The Patho Plains and Terrick Terrick district are part of Victoria’s Northern Plains grasslands which originally extended across 730,000 hectares. Today only approximately 6.6% of the original grasslands remain.
These interviews and photographs explore how people have lived with the country of the northern plains of Victoria over many years. Farmers and land owners speak of their experiences of changing dryland cropping practices, climate change, droughts and floods, and changes in farming life.
Like other Victorian rural areas, the population of the district is decreasing and people are taking a wealth of historical knowledge and experience with them. The Patho Plains Oral History Project was developed to capture the historical knowledge of farmers and landowners to better understand the changing landscape. The project was undertaken from 2010 to 2012 by the Northern Plains Conservation Management Network, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Bendigo.
19th century impressions of the same landscape can be found in Burke and Wills: Then and Now which includes sketches of the Terrick Terrick Plains and Mount Pyramid by Ludwig Becker, the artist travelling with Burke and Wills in 1860. The story also contains video, artworks and interviews with farmers and local people along the route of the expedition retracing the explorer's steps in 2010.