Story of the Piece: Platypus Playtime

Australia's most wonderfully bizarre creature — and one of the most joyful things I have ever seen in the wild.

I have encountered platypus a handful of times in my life - bushwalking in Venman's Bushland in Brisbane in earlier years, and up at the Tablelands here in FNQ. Each time, the same reaction: complete disbelief followed by complete delight. They are ridiculously, insanely wonderful and cute. A mammal that lays eggs, has a duck bill, beaver tail, otter feet, and hunts with electroreception. Nature absolutely outdid itself with the platypus and seems to know it.

Platypus Playtime captures two of them doing what platypus do - moving through the water under a driftwood arch, completely in their element, completely unbothered. The vivid blue resin river is poured and layered to create depth, the driftwood sourced locally, the tiny fish sharing the waterway the way they do in real FNQ rivers and creeks. There is something about watching platypus that feels like a privilege - like being let in on a secret that most of the world doesn't get to know about.

Part of the permanent FNQ Resin Worlds series — a living archive of this landscape and its creatures, frozen in resin, one of a kind.

Materials: Resin, 2 platypi figurines, fish figurines, locally sourced river pebbles and driftwood, local rocks, vegetation accents.

Dimensions: 23cm x 16cm x 6cm (h)

Price: $550