Original Painting · Online Auction
An original acrylic painting by Helen Ansell, created for the Jarrah Forests.
10 – 24 October 2026
View the Online AuctionI created this painting to help protect the Jarrah Forest and the extraordinary wildlife that depends on it. All funds raised through the auction will go to LEAP, supporting their work to protect these irreplaceable forests.
The Forest Behind the Painting
Western Australia’s Jarrah Forest is part of one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots. These forests have developed over millions of years and support an extraordinary variety of plants, animals, birds, reptiles, insects and fungi.
South-west Western Australia supports more than 6,000 native plant species, with around 75% found nowhere else in the world.
Some of the oldest jarrah trees have stood for hundreds of years. As they age, hollows form in their trunks and branches, creating essential nesting and shelter sites for native wildlife. These hollows can take more than a century to develop. Fallen timber, understory plants, waterways, fungi and the forest floor are all part of the same complex habitat. What we see today has taken generations to grow.
Life Within the Forest
These are just three of the remarkable species represented in Helen's painting, and among the many animals that depend on healthy forest habitat.
Numbat
Photograph: Kym Nicolson, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0. Cropped for display.
Forest red-tailed black cockatoo
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photographer and licence to be verified.
Western ringtail possum
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photographer and licence to be verified.
The Forests They Call Home
The Jarrah Forest faces continuing pressure from land clearing and fragmentation associated with mining and development. Climate change, altered fire regimes and diseases such as dieback add further pressure.
When mature forest is cleared, wildlife can lose feeding grounds, nesting sites, tree hollows, hollow logs and the corridors they use to move through the landscape. For threatened species already under pressure, the loss of suitable habitat can have serious consequences.
These forests have taken an extraordinary length of time to develop. Protecting them means protecting the whole living system and giving the species that depend on it a future.
LEAP, Locals for Environmental Action and Protection, is working at a community level to protect the environment and raise awareness about the impacts of bauxite mining on the Jarrah Forest and surrounding communities.
Art for Action
I created this original acrylic painting because I wanted to contribute to the protection of the Jarrah Forest in the way I know best, through my art.
The original will be auctioned online from 10 to 24 October 2026.
All funds raised will go to LEAP and may help support water quality sampling, dust monitoring, motion cameras to identify threatened fauna in impacted areas, and Freedom of Information requests.
A3 prints of Save Our Jarrah Forests will also be available, with proceeds going to LEAP.
Online Auction
Bid on Helen Ansell's original Save Our Jarrah Forests painting and help support the work of LEAP.
Bid on Save Our Jarrah ForestsNoongar language varies across Country, and names and spellings can differ between language groups and regions.
