The collection consists of 4 watercolour works by the West Australian artist Elizabeth Durack. The subjects are scenes of Aboriginal women and children on Ivanhoe and Lissadell stations, c1948-1952. These works were completed in the period when Durack had a bough shelter studio on the banks of the Ord River, on Ivanhoe Station, in the Kimberley, WA.

Making soap, Lissadell Station East Kimberley 1948, watercolour, shows a group of women carrying buckets collecting together as part of the activity of soap-making.

(Ivanhoe Station, East Kimberley) watercolour and pencil on paper, shows children playing and standing around, with boab trees and domestic animals in the background.

Ivanhoe camp c1952 watercolour and dyeline, shows a scene from the camp, with an elderly woman in the foreground sitting in her shelter, with women and children and other camp structures in the background.

The high bank of the Ord c1952 watercolour and dyeline, shows two women, one holding a child by the hand, walking along accompanied by several camp dogs, watched by station cattle in the background.

The works are signed 'Elizabeth Durack' on the bottom right of the paintings.

The works are in good condition

The works in this collection are a contribution to the record of the participation of Aboriginal people in the cattle industry in the Kimberley, painted by a member of one of the most significant non-Indigenous families of that region, the Duracks. In particular, they record aspects of the lives of women and children on these stations. Elizabeth Durack [1915-2000] was best-known for her representations of the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley. The collection is also part of story of the Durack family, who were the first Europeans to establish permanent settlements in the Kimberleys and were a major element in the establishment of the cattle industry there. Mary and Elizabeth Durack then translated their experiences with the Aboriginal people of that area into their writings and their art.