Drought Forced Town to Close. Artist Stayed and Thrived

When Jenny Greentree arrived in Bourke, Australia in 1996, she expected red dirt and dusty horizons. Instead, the western New South Wales town was green to the road's edge, the Darling-Baaka River flowing full, and 130 children filled the local school where she taught.

Then the millennium drought arrived in 1997, and it didn't let go for years. By 2006, officially the driest year on record for many regions, Bourke had transformed completely.

The packing facility where Jenny's husband Steve worked closed its doors. Jenny's school shrank from 130 students to just eight as families left to find work elsewhere. Eventually, the school closed too.

"It was really hard on the town, and people were really despairing," Jenny said. "We were just farewelling people all the time because there was no work."

But something unexpected was taking root for the Greentree family. Jenny had been painting on the side while teaching, and a local gallery owner was selling her work steadily.

When that gallery owner became another "drought refugee" and left town, Jenny and Steve spotted an opportunity. Bourke was starting to attract winter travelers road-tripping between Victoria and Queensland, and a new exhibition center had opened in 2004.

In 2006, in the middle of a drought that still had years to run, they opened Back O' Bourke Gallery. Jenny's distinctive pastel landscapes captured the stark beauty of western NSW—stringybark gum trees, river bends, red dirt roads, and vast horizons.

Her realistic style developed using pan pastels, compressed into makeup-like compacts, creating clarity that made her work instantly recognizable. Some pieces even incorporate real soil collected from the landscape—six different shades from light grey floodplain soil to dark red dirt.

Why This Inspires

Twenty years later, Jenny's art has supported her family and become a tourism drawcard for Bourke. Her career didn't just survive the drought—it sprouted from it, proving that sometimes staying put when everyone else leaves can reveal opportunities others never see.

The Greentrees found beauty and purpose in the same red dirt that drove their neighbors away. Jenny still paints the landscapes that tested her community, transforming harsh memories into stunning art that brings visitors back to the town that refused to let the drought win.