Barkly

Distinguished and Famous people from Barkly

The Barkly's creative lives include an artist observing Tennant Creek's dogs and a musician keeping Mudburra language central to contemporary performance. These connections belong to particular communities within the Northern Territory region.

🎨 Dion Beasley

Dion Beasley's drawings grew from watching and feeding dogs around Tennant Creek. His close observation supplied the personalities behind the Cheeky Dog artworks and picture books made with writer Johanna Bell, including Too Many Cheeky Dogs and Go Home, Cheeky Animals! Beasley, who is deaf, communicates through drawing as well as other forms of expression. Exhibitions and books took those familiar local animals to distant audiences, with their unruly character very much intact.

🎵 Eleanor Dixon

Eleanor Dixon is a Mudburra singer and songwriter from Marlinja. She performs with her father Raymond in Rayella and has also worked with the all-women group Kardajala Kirridarra. Her music brings language and community knowledge into contemporary performance, using new sounds alongside inherited songs and influences. She has spoken about the importance of keeping language strong and creating opportunities for Indigenous women in music.

📚 Biddy Tuxworth

Biddy Tuxworth moved to Tennant Creek in 1951 and worked as a nursing sister. From 1965 she began interviewing older residents and, with Marjorie Fullwood, gathering documents and photographs that became an important historical archive. Her Tennant Creek: Yesterday and Today appeared in 1966 and was later expanded. In 1978 she helped save the former hospital outpatients’ department from demolition; as Tuxworth-Fullwood House it later housed a museum and archives. She also taught ballet and painted local wildflowers. Her forty-two years in the town joined practical community service with a determination that its stories and records should survive.