About Boomerang Art - Aboriginal Art Gallery and Studio
Werner established Boomerang Art together with his wife Elena in 1996 and in September 2023 both moved to a bush property some 15 minutes drive from Alice Springs. Here they established a studio and two outside galleries by renovating and building an additional two sheds with a combined display area of about 500 square meters.
Werner's Story
I was always interested in art and when visiting other countries I never missed an opportunity to visit Art Galleries in France, the Netherlands and wherever I was able to travel. At that time I worked in a German law enforcement agency and after a holiday in Australia I decided in 1980 at the age of 36 to move permanently to our beautiful country.
I never attended an English class and had to learn the language by working for various businesses over a period of 3 years, always accompanied by a dictionary and always reading and watching TV. Whilst I never even for one day missed Germany, I missed the camaraderie of the colleagues I worked with in the Bureau of Investigation in Munich. That made me apply for a job somehow related to my old profession in the police. After the first 1st year as a training officer for the Australian Protective Services I ended up becoming National Operations Manager. Restless as always, about 10 years later I made another foolish decision. I applied for a job in Customs and continued to work there till my early retirement in 1996 as Regional Director for South Australia. I was worried for the financial security of my family giving up this very well-paid secure job with a supplied car and rental assistance and for this reason made sure I survived in this profession for about 6 years.
That’s when I was able to realise my dreams, starting a gallery in Adelaide. Unfortunately, it did not go as well as hoped and the decision was made that my wife Elena continues to run the gallery in Adelaide and look after our two children, whilst I commute to Alice Springs to work with artists and come home for a family visit every two weeks. This worked very well but doing it for a full 16-year I had enough. I moved back to Adelaide and later we transferred all to the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
Finally, 2022 brought about a fundamental change. I felt I was on the way out and so I closed our Sunshine Coast gallery and prepared all for my wife and two grown up children to survive without me. Usually, I am quite good assessing situations, in this instance however I was completely wrong. The surgeon in the Brisbane Prince Charles Hospital is at fault. I booked into this hospital and whilst it was a quite traumatic experience to stay there for open heart surgery for one week, all the staff were kind, extremely helpful, and particularly the surgeon very professional.
Three months after the operation I was able to work again whilst in the last month prior to the operation I could walk no further than about 50 meters without sitting down.
Having watched all what Netflix offers during my recovery period in a recliner chair and being nursed by Elena I felt bored and was eager to get active again. I said to Elena, I am only 80, that’s too young to retire and boredom kills me. Let’s start business again. Knowing her I expected her to agree but I was not prepared for her response. She said, why don’t we move to Alice Springs close to Utopia where our artists live so we do not have to travel at a great expense. It took me 5 minutes to agree, and we sold all on the Sunshine Coast and at the same time looked around for a suitable property in Alice Springs. The rest is history.
Only recently (June 2024) I redeveloped our website. I travelled to India and lived and worked with a group of web developers for 12 days. It actually changed my view about India. I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the people there and enjoyed my stay and the only thing I did not like was the transport on the back of a motorbike in chaotic traffic.
In Alice Springs we completed the development of our second gallery and my wife Elena is busy creating our desert garden, looking after our chooks, 2 dogs and me. She claims that I am the most difficult one to look after and relaxes going for weekend walks with some walking groups, enjoys working with community garden people ... and finds it rewarding to engage in local activities. Alice Springs is a very nice place with beautiful surroundings, a place all Australians should see.
It is our home and we welcome visitors to our place and view our large collection of artworks.