Susie McGrath Speaks Softly to Trees Small Edition Ed. 1 of 12

Susie McGrath was born in County Clare, where land was worked closely and families relied on small plots to survive. By the 1840s, the potato crop had failed and the effects of famine were widespread. Work was scarce. Many families could not sustain themselves.

She married William Doherty in Ireland during this period. Leaving was not a choice made lightly. It meant leaving her parents behind, likely for good, and giving up the possibility of returning. One sister went to America. Susie and William came to Victoria in the early 1850s.

They settled near Bendigo, and later at Goornong. She raised her children there. Life was structured by work, by seasons, and by what needed to be done each day.

When she found injured animals, she tended to them where she could. It was something she already knew how to do.

Very little of her life was recorded. What remains is inferred.

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Lauren Starr is an Australian photo-media artist creating narrative works at the intersection of myth, history, and land. Her practice centres on women’s lived and inherited experiences, drawing on fairytales, colonial histories, and personal ancestry to reimagine familiar stories through a contemporary lens.

Working with staged photography and digital compositing, Starr constructs painterly tableaux that sit between reality and myth. Her images often incorporate photographed fragments of her own paintings and textures, creating layered works that feel both symbolic and embodied.

Recent works explore themes of re-wilding, instinct, and the quiet reclamation of power, particularly through reimagined female archetypes and narratives from the Victorian goldfields.

Starr is a finalist in the 2026 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize and has been recognised through the Olive Cotton Award and Head On Photo Awards. She is the recipient of the Bluethumb Art Prize (Photography + Grand Prize, 2022), and her work is held in public collections including Parliament House Melbourne and Bendigo Art Gallery.