Four artists respond to footage from the Bjelke-Petersen era, exploring their cultural inheritance as creative Queenslanders.

Moonlight States sees four Queensland artists respond to Chris Masters’ ‘The Moonlight State’, a Four Corners episode exposing the corruption of the Bjelke-Petersen Government and the Queensland Police. The airing of the episode in May, 1987 led to the commissioning of the Fitzgerald Enquiry. The exhibition treats the footage of Moonlight State as a found object - examined and deconstructed to create a dialogue with the community about our shared histories and presents. The Chris Masters’ episode of Four Corners is a rich resource in that it provides specific and contextual detail to what had previously, to the artists’ generation, been oral history and hearsay. 

Exhibition by Jack Rodgers, Charlie Donaldson, Sally Molloy and Phoebe Paradise.

This exhibition is supported by

City of Ipswich, Queensland Government & the Regional Arts Development Fund.

The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Ipswich City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

Moonlight States ran from Friday 21 November 2025 to Sunday 30 November 2025.

Photography courtesy of Louis Lim & Ipswich Art Gallery

I would like to extend an extra special thank you to the amazing Benjamin Nicholls without whom this artwork wouldn’t be possible! He donated weeks and weeks and long days to fabricate this sculpture with me, simply for the love of the game. I am in his debt, and truly consider him a co-author of the work.