Our excursion today will highlight the natural history of the City of Joondalup in a most unusual way. After a short walk from Neil Hawkins Park through the bushland of Lakeside Park and Centennial Park we will visit the Joondalup library for a personal explanation by Dr Perditta (Perdy) Phillips of her Joondakammer.

Perdy, the daughter of Club stalwart, Margaret Larke, created Joondakammer: A cabinet of curiosity for Joondalup, after being awarded the City’s major Visual Arts Commission in 2022.

 Her work was inspired by early museums that housed artefact collections in cabinets of curiosity or Wunderkammer, which inspired the content and name of the new artwork.

The artwork consists of a wooden cabinet, complete with abalone shell inlays and filled with specimens found from the Joondalup region, including pinecones, nuts, feathers, bones, soil and other objects including a xylotheque. What’s a xylotheque? Join us to find out.

“It is a true museum for Joondalup,” the artist said. “I visited many parks and areas where natural lives still carry on – from beaches and sand dunes to bushland and the swampy shores of Lake Joondalup”.

We will have refreshments at a local patisserie before returning to our vehicles.