Sarah Lynch is an artist based in Naarm (Melbourne) and works primarily in photography, video, and installation. Lynch’s most recent work examines the diversity of the botanical world and the relationship between plants, people, and the ecosystems they inhabit.

Sarah will be presenting at the snow gum summit, which will happen at Dinner Plain from February 14 – 16, 2025.

Above the Snow Line is a photographic investigation of encountering the snow gums in the high plains of the Victorian Alpine Region affected by drought, fires and woodboring beetle infestations. They are the only trees that can grow above the snow line. They provide a habitat for animals and birds and slow the ice melt flow to the Murray-Darling Basin. They thrive in the most severe weather conditions, enduring snow, ice, and extreme winds.

The Bogong Centre for Sound Culture residency allowed Sarah to contribute to Save our Snowgums, www.saveoursnowgum.org, a citizen science project collating observations of Snow-gum dieback across the Australian Alps. The data collected will provide scientists with a greater understanding of the underlying reasons for the susceptibility of snow gums to woodboring longicorn beetle infestations that kill the trees. The beetle larvae essentially ring-bark the tree, leaving visible scars on the trunk and branches, and the tree’s canopy gradually declines in health and dies.

Above the Snow Line seeks to highlight the plight of the snow gums and bring awareness to the catastrophic events occurring due to a changing climate and the impacts of drought, bushfires and beetle infestation in this unique Alpine ecosystem. This project invites the viewer to look closely at the fragility of these iconic trees as they have nowhere else to go.

Above the Snow Line
Jan 17th – 23rd Feb 2025
Opening Launch:
Sat Jan 18th 2- 4pm
B—CSC Gallery
Bogong Village
Gallery hours:
Fri-Sun 10.30- 4pm

Some notes about Above the Snow Line project:

  • The photographic project Above the Snow Line gave me a connection to the snow gum trees of the Victorian Alps witnessing their majesty firsthand by photographing them in the snow and experiencing the extreme conditions they must endure.
  • The Residency at Bogong Centre for Sound Culture allowed me to participate in the citizen science project save our snow gums to track die-back occurrences from native beetle infestation around Falls Creek and Mt Hotham
  • The Residency also gave me an opportunity to live in the Alpine region as an artist from a metropolitan area.