HIDDEN gem, the Euraba Paper Company, is tucked away on Merriwa Street in Boggabilla on the northern tip of the Moree Plains Shire.

Boggabilla, 10 kilometres south of border town Goondiwindi, and nearby Toomelah have in recent months made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Paul West, one of the founders of Euraba Paper, says it’s time to change the narrative.

“Boggabilla has such a terrible reputation for youth crime and drugs, but we see ourselves as the national town of Aboriginal paper-making,” Mr West said.

“We want billboards either side of Boggabilla to tell a positive story, and that the town isn’t a ‘drive-through-it-quickly’ area.”

The Euraba Paper Company evolved when Mr West was a NSW TAFE teacher in the 1990s.

“I was running the arts and media aboriginal art and culture practices program at the Boggabilla TAFE campus at the time,” Mr West recalled.

He chatted with Moree Online News when attending the Looking Back, Looking Forward exhibition at Moree’s Yaama Ganu Gallery.

“Nine original aunties – community elders – had been recycled through TAFE, doing everything from French polishing to the artificial insemination of cows. Finally, TAFE NSW woke up and thought, ‘maybe Aboriginal art would be a good idea’,” Mr West chuckled.

The New England Institute of TAFE introduced papermaking to the nine founding members of Euraba – Joy Duncan, May Hinch, Adrienne Duncan, Marlene Hinch, Gloria Woodbridge, Margie Duncan, Jenny McIntosh, Maureen Mischlewski and the late Isobel Karkoe – in Cert 3 and 4 of the Aboriginal art and culture practices course.

From this, the Euraba Paper Company was founded.

Importantly, the next generation of Aboriginal creatives and artists was established when students from Boggabilla Central School this year attended workshops at Euraba under the Educational Pathways Program.

Looking Back, Looking Forward features artworks from these incredibly talented students as well as Euraba artists and papermakers Marlene Hinch, Joy Duncan, Leonie Binge, Samantha Nean and Thelma Bartman, whose mother, Stella O’Halloran, was also a member.

“The original aunties and myself started together in 1996 and went through to the year 2000 (at TAFE),” Mr West said.

“We had a workshop where we invited basket-weavers from Maningrida in the northern Territory. “These were traditional, Aboriginal women from Arnhem Land, who came down to Boggabilla to revive the traditional women’s craft practice of basket-weaving, which is what the Gomeroi women did down by the river, using river reeds to make into baskets,” he said.

“The Boggabilla and Toomelah women wove baskets, and they lost that tradition through the government mission period from 1901 to 1970.

“We thought it would be a great idea to revive that, and it was very successful,” Mr West said.

Then the light bulb moment lit up the workshop.

“We looked around and saw this was the land of broad-acre cotton-farming, and basket-weaving uses fibres,” Mr West said.

The question then arose: What could an unlikely partnership between a group of Aboriginal women and cotton-growers in regional Australia do to create an enterprise, and what would be that enterprise’s chief stock-in-trade.

“We discovered the Rolls Royce of paper is cotton-rag paper,” Mr West said.

“We got together with Sam Coulton, of Goondiwindi Cotton. Sam was growing his own cotton and making it into fabric and clothing. The cotton-rag offcuts came to the Euraba paper mill and we made it into paper and pulp paintings,” he said.

Many of the pieces in Looking Back, Looking Forward were made from cotton-rag offcuts from cotton grown at Keytah, west of Moree.

The cotton rag offcuts sourced from cotton grown in the district, produces quality paper – arguably the best and finest in Australia.

“We’re producing artists, but the other half of what we do is research and development of beautiful certificate paper for universities, giving graduating students the option to have their degrees printed on Euraba paper,” Mr West said.

“That’s a business in itself, because there are graduations every year, forever.

“We’re hoping departments like the prime minister’s office, and offices of the governor-general and governor of New South Wales, as well as the premier’s office, medical associations and the Supreme Court of New South Wales will consider printing all their major awards and certificates on Euraba paper.

“The Australian of the Year Award should be printed on Euraba paper,” Mr West said.

Euraba means ‘healing place’ in the Gomeroi language.

The artists’ collective at Boggabilla is about healing, community, resilience and cultural leadership, with a passionate purpose to revive – and preserve – the art of Aboriginal papermaking.

Bank Art Museum Moree exhibitions officer, Sarah Vickerman, said Euraba artists are recognised for their unique handmade paper art, most notably their large-scale cotton pulp paintings made with cotton rag from locally grown cotton.

“These paintings tell the stories of their land, their ancestors and their way of life. They were the first indigenous community group to make handmade paper and paper arts of this kind in Australia,” Sarah said.

In recent years, the Euraba Paper Company as an organisation has been operating only intermittently due to a lack of resources.

“However, there is renewed enthusiasm among the remaining artists to again produce their iconic paper works. A series of workshops was conducted in 2024, most recently with students from Boggabilla Central School and made possible with the help of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development,” Sarah said.

“The exhibition at Yaama Ganu, supported by Arts North West and BAMM, is a celebration of the rich history of this arts group and its ongoing commitment to its community.”

Also supported by the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Program, Looking Back, Looking Forward stands as a testament to the power of art, said Arts North West executive director, Lauren Mackley.

“Arts North West is honoured to work with the Gomeroi artists in this first group show for the artists, since the reopening of the studio,” Lauren said.

“This show is a powerful celebration of cultural pride, creativity, and community resilience. The dedication of the artists and the Euraba Paper Company in championing sustainable practices while honouring Gomeroi traditions is truly inspiring.

“We encourage everyone to experience this unique exhibition and support the talented artists who have brought it to life,” she said.

Yaama Ganu Gallery director, Toby Osmond, said the Euraba exhibition will be displayed until late January, with all pieces available to purchase.

“Every person who visits the gallery is very keen to see the work from the local mob – we wish there were more – and we’ve recorded really good sales so far,” Mr Osmond said.

“This is the first exhibition we’ve had in the main gallery space exclusive to Kamilaroi and Gomeroi work.

“The really great back-story is how they’re using the cotton rag offcuts sourced locally from Keytah. Their cotton goes to the major brands and the cotton rag comes back here,” he said.

Mr Osmond said the Boggabilla Central School program was inspiring, and that showed when Looking Back, Looking Forward was officially opened at Yaama Ganu Gallery.

“We really felt there was an enormous sense of pride,” Mr Osmond said.

“When aunty Adrienne Duncan – or aunty Adie, as we call her – welcomed the students at the exhibition opening, it was really quite moving.

“She was saying how her community is well-positioned with this group of young girls, who can take things into the future.
“We couldn’t be happier to have these guys here, and to be involved.”

Mr Osmond said Euraba Paper Company has created a niche market.

“Some communities we work with are generally working with acrylic on canvas, and people are sometimes looking for something a little different,” Mr Osmond said.

“How Euraba makes the paper and the element of sustainability, in which everyone is interested, really makes them well-placed, because there’s essentially no-one else doing this type of work – it’s quite a unique industry,” he said.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

When: Open until end of January

Where: Yaama Ganu Gallery

Address: 211 Balo Street, Moree

Words and Images: Bill Poulos