Darwin’s Nightcliff foreshore is a popular destination for locals and visitors wanting to get some exercise, find a spot to picnic, or wet a line while watching one of the region’s famous sunsets. But long before the bike paths and playgrounds appeared, before Nightcliff was even a place name, the coastline was – and always will be – Larrakia land.
For photographer Nicholas Walton-Healey, the shoreline of Nightcliff has become as inseparable from his vision and practice as the primaeval forests and rivers of Tasmania were to Peter Dombrovskis or the American West was to Ansel Adams. This stretch of Timor Sea coastline is his Tarkine Wilderness, his Yosemite Valley; a place he has returned to again and again since first visiting the Territory in 2013.
In a sense, the path that would eventually lead to the Nightcliff series began with a stumble at the very beginning of his university education. When Nicholas enrolled at The University of Melbourne in 2005, he
