Join ‘Amphibious’ Curator and cultural programmer Valentina Bydanova, partnering with RMIT early career Photographer Jesse Grey, in the Beyond the Docks Symposium to explore the Bass Strait oil rigs and their history as a ‘community landscape’ or, should we say, seascape.

The discovery of the nation’s largest oil field in 1967; the Kingfish oil field (in the Gippsland Basin), changed Australia and Victoria’s industry and economy. However, not many Melbournians/ Victorians know that Bass Strait is dotted with 22 oil rigs that provide Victoria with 60 per cent of its oil and gas needs. Still, most of us rightfully have questions and opinions about these industrial complexes, beyond the docks and beyond our view. Many wonder how oil rigs impact local and global environments, and how the transition from extractive to more sustainable models of fuel will be actualised by local governments, service providers, global leaders – and ‘the people’.