Sharon Ridsdale Presents

THE SILENT EXTINCTION - THEIR FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS

Sharon Ridsdale is a contemporary Central Coast artist with an extensive background in zookeeping and veterinary nursing. Ridsdale's first-hand experience caring for creatures of all shapes and sizes has fostered a deep-seated concern for the plight of the environment and its inhabitants, with pollution and ongoing habitat destruction chief concerns.

It is this concern that informs her exhibition: The Silent Extinction – Their Future is in our Hands. This exhibition shows the beauty and diversity of some of Australia’s only amphibians. Australia has 246 native species of frog, many of which are in decline. Frogs are mysteriously dying across Australia, particularly along the East Coast, with The Australian Museum documenting thousands of frogs across more than 40 species died last winter. 

Although many agencies are working together to investigate the cause, it remains a mystery. Habitat destruction and fungal disease are thought to contribute to their decimation, but why now, so many, and so suddenly? Four species have been declared extinct in the last decade, with 40 species declared threatened. 

They called their little hearts out, but the areas where they were once abundant, now fall silent.