It’s a strange thing to paint a landscape that no longer exists. In early 2024, the City of Vincent announced Hyde Park’s tree canopy was under threat from an exotic beetle infestation. I began visiting the park weekly to draw, photograph, and paint it. My reference photographs and drawings were made in Djilba (August), when it was damp and the light was soft. By April 2025, when I began this painting, the shaggy melaleucas still stood. But their soft, water-rooted wood had become ideal for the beetles and they were severely infested. In June, they were cut down to protect the older Plane and Moreton Bay Fig trees of Hyde Park. Now, as I finish this painting, the island is bare.