The fish trap design of Laurie Nilsen’s Once were Fishermen I invokes ancient knowledge and fishing traditions, but provides a pointed political and environmental commentary through the materiality of its construction and its contents — the detritus of contemporary society. The ‘catch’ inside the trap consists of rubbish and debris collected by the artist at the mouth of the Brisbane River: plastic bottles, discarded toys, abandoned thongs, plastic fish and a tin lid all tell of a disposable lifestyle, overrun with plastic and endangering the natural environment. Nilsen lamented:

Being an avid fisherman, I see this rubbish floating in and out of the river all of the time, and it’s become a real problem . . . it’s killing a lot of the wildlife, these plastics — dolphins and turtles . . . [The plastic] may look harmless, but when you get hundreds and hundreds of tons, it does a lot of damage.