For almost 80 years, the historic village of Hill End has played a defining role in the careers of hundreds of Australian artists.
John Olsen, Russell Drysdale, Ben Quilty and Margaret Olley are among those who have been drawn to the artistic "mecca" over the years.
But many in the art community fear its legacy is under threat as the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) puts Hill End's cottages out to tender for the first time.
The expression-of-interest process underway could mean the cottages are no longer available for artist residencies, prompting political pushback from the top.
A special place
Only prospectors have trodden the flinty road to Hill End more than visual artists. For resident and artist Luke Sciberras, they are almost the same thing anyway.
"There is a history of artists living in Hill End that I think gives younger artists something to look forward to," he said.
"The idea that you could realise your full potential in a place that's widely understood by artists and non-artists alike."
"It really is mecca," Bathurst Regional Art Gallery director Sarah Gurich said.
Waves of artists
The first-wave artists, as they were known, followed Russell Drysdale and Donald Friend over the mountains to the vast and pocked landscape and distinct light of Hill End in the late 1940s.
Friend became so enchanted by Hill End that trip that he purchased a cottage with his partner, Donald Murray, and it became known as Murray's Cottage.
Jean Bellette and her art-critic husband Peter Haefliger followed suit with the purchase of Haefliger's cottage and a scene was born.
Jeffrey Smart, David Strachan and Margaret Olley began making the pilgrimage to the cottages to live and work.
Drysdale would return for long stints, too.
In the 1960s, John Olsen and his young family escaped Sydney for the bracing air and creative solitude of Hill End, followed closely by Brett Whiteley, Michael Johnson and John Firth-Smith.
In fact, the keys to Murray's and Haefliger's cottages were passed between established and emerging artists continuously until last year, when Bathurst Regional Art Gallery decided not to renew their leases.
"This isn't just a story of two cottages that suddenly became artists' residencies," Mr Sciberras said.
"There's a hugely rich visual history of the paintings and drawings and photographs, of the life in and around and from within those cottages going way, way back.
What is the threat?
The historic village of Hill End has been managed by the NPWS since 1967.
Upon her death in 1991, Bellette bequeathed Haefliger's cottage to the NPWS to manage for artist residencies.
In his 1994 book and exhibition for the Art Gallery of NSW — Hill End: Art, Life and Landscape — curator Gavin Wilson succinctly spotlighted the village's unique place in Australia's fine-art soul.
It prompted Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to formalise the Hill End artist-in-residency program from 1999, taking on the cottage's leases.
The threat Mr Sciberras describes is something the NPWS is calling a routine government expression-of-interest process — an open-market approach to renewing the cottage's leases.
It's the first of its kind in relation to Murray's and Haefliger's cottages and technically opens them up for other uses like short-term accommodation.
Mr Sciberras says he has fielded "hundreds of desperate comments" in response to the news.
"There is an enormous amount of artists of all varieties who care deeply about these cottages, and have a very, very deep connection to them through their work, but also for many, their family lives began here," he said.
A necessary rethink
As the lessee for more than 20 years, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and Bathurst Regional Council are framing the process as "a necessary rethink".
Gallery director Sarah Gurich said she was confident the benefits outweighed the risks of putting the cottages out to tender.
"We're seeing the EOI process as an opportunity to negotiate more sustainable models for the program and to negotiate more sustainable lease arrangements with NPWS," Ms Gurich said.
Property maintenance had been an ongoing sticking point, with structural heritage factors requiring more commitment from NPWS given they were beyond the scope of a gallery, she added.
"The current lease arrangement is a commercial one, meaning property maintenance is falling to the lessee," she said.
"Murray's cottage, for example, has a fantastic tiled stove that was put in by Margaret Olley and Donald Friend — it's on the state heritage register.
"[The gallery feels] it's important that National Parks works with whoever the lessee may be to ensure that the properties are properly preserved."
In a statement, the NPWS said an evaluation panel would assess applications against the EOI criteria.
"The process ensures the best possible outcome, consistent with the site's environmental, cultural and heritage values, is achieved for village residents, park visitors and the general public," it said.
Ministers, national gallery weigh in
The outpouring of emotion and anxiety from some of Australia's most lauded artists has reached the upper echelons of NSW parliament.
In a candid Instagram post, Arts Minister Ben Franklin pledged to work with the council, the NPWS, and Environment Minister James Griffin to do "all that I can" to ensure the sites were retained as artist residencies.
Both ministers declined interview requests.
In a statement, the director of the National Gallery of Australia, Nick Mitzevich, said "Hill End is an important site for the artistic heritage of the nation".
"The continuation of the successful artists-in-residence program is an important part of providing opportunities for artists."
What's at stake is what's yet to come
Mr Sciberras points to the recent opening of Arthur Boyd's Bundanon estate as an example of what he calls a "faith in the future" by governments.
The Boyd family gifted the former residence of Arthur and Yvonne Boyd to the NSW government, which was turned into a multi-million-dollar art and architecture precinct that opened earlier this year.
It is a homage to Boyd's work but also a safe space for new work to be developed.
"That should be felt as keenly as the history."
Expressions of interest for the cottages close on May 2.
