mmg.com.au

Nathalia’s G.R.A.I.N. Store is one of two venues in rural Victoria selected to exhibit works paying tribute to the drought.

Beyond Reasonable Drought opened at Nathalia at the weekend and will be shown at Mildura Arts Centre later in the year.

Landline presenter Tim Lee opened the exhibition locally on Saturday. It continues until March 31.

It includes 86 images captured by MAPgroup (Many Australian Photographers) across Australia, including many Victoria communities, during the drought which ended in 2010.

It features works from some of Australia’s leading documentary photographers including Rodney Decker, Ponch Hawkes, Tobias Titz, Julie Milovich and Andrew Chapman.

The G.R.A.I.N. Store’s Bill Kelly said the exhibition was a real coup.

‘‘The Museum of Australian Democracy has funded a photographer — Dale Mann, with photo credits in Time Magazine and The Bulletin — to be in residence at The G.R.A.I.N. Store for the duration of the exhibition to document the Nathalia district post-drought and to work with local photographers in a community project with the same theme,’’ Mr Kelly said.

‘‘These photographs will form part of an archive at the museum with work by local photographers becoming part of our national history.’’

Exhibition patron Lee Kernaghan paid tribute to the families and stories shared through the exhibition.

‘‘The drought put many to the test. It also brought the country together with an outpouring of support and community spirit that enabled many families to keep going,’’ he said.

‘‘The photographs in Beyond Reasonable Drought document the way Australians work and live during drought.

‘‘They present the seemingly contradictory combination of beauty and desolation.

‘‘The exhibition poses the questions about our attitudes toward water use, our national and personal priorities, and the durability of our national character.

‘‘The contrast of record-breaking drought followed by unprecedented floods over large parts of the country in 2010 and 2011 went beyond our reasonable expectations.’’

The Museum of Australian Democracy, with the MAPgroup, brings the exhibition to Nathalia.