Acrylic on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

This piece depicts a track where Aboriginal people used to camp and still did into the 1940’s (after the Great Depression of the 1930’s) and was known as a “Sweet place to stay.” The back of the reserve was a sacred place and is known to the local Yued Aboriginal people to be the place where the last corroboree was held in this area, possibly in the 1940’s. There was a water tank there where the black trackers used to camp and water their horses when they were no longer working at the Moore River Native Settlement, Mogumber. The trackers used to assist the Moora police. Ruby Ryder’s father was a tracker and also a champion boxer who lived with his family on the Old Reserve (opposite and at the site where the present Speedway track is located).
It became known to the town folk as Candy’s Bush Track from when the Candy family came to live nearby in the 1950’s. The eleven Candy’s children made tracks through the bush to ride their push bikes – hence ‘Candy’s Bush Track’. Many people have fond memories of enjoying spending time there camp- ing and playing as children. In 1947 the Moora Road Board (now the Shire of Moora) sub-divided an area facing Gardiner St into housing blocks; a few were bought but not built on. This area, plus the Crown land behind is what became known as Candy’s Bush Track.