This spot beside Ginninderra Creek is one of my magic places. I’ve seen it roaring with water, and I’ve seen it so low I can walk into the middle and sit on a rock. It’s seen me through joy, and through darkness. I knew I had to paint it.

The stories in the section ‘On Land’ in Animal Behaviour (2nd edition) really are so diverse. Some have acquired a new resonance since I wrote them, pushing against the world as we live in it now. Being a writer sometimes makes you see things more deeply and in different ways.