Liam Barry

Whyalla City Council will put on a range of events to celebrate the annual congregation of Cuttlefish in South Australia’s Spencers Gulf.

Sydney artist, diver and conservation advocate, Sue-Liu, will be hosting one of the events taking place at this year’s ‘Cuttlefest’, as the Whyalla Council celebrates the world’s largest gathering of Cuttlefish.

Currently in the state’s Eyre Peninsula for a short time as a volunteer with Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries, Sue will be diving, studying, and filming the species in the Stony Point area.

The purpose behind Sue’s work, she believes, is to foster an enduring fascination for a broader array of local animals, hoping to make a meaningful impact to help save vulnerable wildlife and their habitats.

Sue’s observational illustration workshop which she will be hosting later this month, will allow participants to get up close with the marine animal through images and videos she has hand-shot, as well as introduce them to observational illustration techniques.

The behaviours and effects humans have on wildlife, especially marine life, is one of the main reasons Sue is such a big advocate for conservation:

“Because animals are innocent creatures, they are in their own environment, doing their own thing, and quite often they are at risk from human beings and our behaviours”, she said.

“Marine animals, in particular, are not seen as much especially in real life, as animals on land, because you actually have to get into that environment”, Sue added.

She hopes she can play an important role in exposing people to animals they don’t see on a frequent basis:

“I’m trying to be that link between people who don’t have the opportunity or don’t think about them just because you don’t come across them every day”, she said

“As a photographer, I get to take photos of these animals, and I share them with people on my socials.

“Now I can take that a step further by translating what I see and experience as a diver, into communicating and sharing this with others in a different way, through my art.

“I bring people underwater with me through my stories and imagery, and I teach people who want to draw”, she said.

“People assume I’ve spent a long time perfecting this craft, but I haven’t, the way I draw and go about my craft is done in a way that is accessible to everybody.

“I’m trying to open art up to people, and teach them that it’s about observing, seeing things with different eyes and working out your way of expressing and communicating something you find fascinating”, she said.

Although diving in her home state of Sydney and in the Asia-pacific regions, Sue has not yet had the chance to experience Cuttle Fish in the types of numbers seen in the Eyre Peninsula during the winter months:

“I have not yet experienced Cuttle Fish in the volume and the activity of the aggregation in Whyalla, it’s quite special”, she said.

“South Australian Cuttle Fish are actually very colourful, their displays are really, not different, but in the context of what they’re doing (mating), and in that volume, I’m excited to have that experience.

“I hope my class gives people a deeper understanding about the nature of these beings that they probably would have never even thought about, and at the end of the day, they go and say oh I really like that animal.

“At the end of the day my class is all about having a go, trying something different, putting pen to paper, and in a way, I’m teaching something that is very unique, something that is able to engage children and adults together”, Sue added.

Sue’s workshop will be held on the 29^th of June from 10 am-12 pm at the Whyalla Public Library, with those interested being able to book tickets here.