A glimpse into deep time on Dharug Country. Timeflows is a public artwork by Michael Cohen, Chris Fox and Shay Tobin in Blacktown International Sports Park which examines Ngurra (Dharug Country) in terms of durational landform change and long-term inhabitation by First Nations people.

This inhabitation in the local area, in the neighbouring Cumberland Plain, and in the Sydney Basin more broadly, has continued for such a ‘deep time’ period that it is hard for a single human to grasp.

Dharug people considered the ancient uplift of the Lapstone Structural Complex as the staircase from the plains to the mountains. Stone tool artefacts that date back up to 47,000 years have been found nearby at Cranebrook Terrace.

Layers of sedimentation, like chronological contours, can tell a multitude of stories about the flows of time. For this artwork we brought together geological and topographic data sets from this area. Through computational modelling, we generated the looming forms that appear to emerge from the earth.

Passing beneath them, you will see that each form speaks to a different era. Yet each reflects the continuity of Ngurra,and of Dharug people.