South of the Baw Baw Ranges, about 160km east of Melbourne, Victoria, lies Moondarra Reservoir, a water catchment and storage dam. Moondarra – a word that comes from the local Australian Aboriginal people – is thought to mean “plenty of rain and thunder” and the area is well-known for storms with strong, heavy rain. The opening of this work evokes a summer storm over Moondarra with rolls of thunder and pelting rain. At midnight as the storm subsides, animals such as bats, echidnas, snakes, and kangaroos venture from their nests to hunt and forage for food and to see what the rain has brought. Midnight at Moondarra attempts to express how these animals might move, march, dance, soar, or swim after the storm has passed.
