In the 1970s, scientists claimed cocaine and heroin were intrinsically addictive after a study that involved placing a rat in a cage. They connected the rat to a drip and injected the subject with the drugs whenever it pressed a button.

But a few years later, another researcher argued this original study was rigged because it had isolated an otherwise social animal in a cage and given it nothing to do except press a button. Was it really a surprise it pressed the button?

The story fascinated full-time Canberra digital artist Stuart McMillen and led to perhaps the work for which he is most renowned – ‘Rat Park‘, a comic strip that follows the science experiment’s story.

“Most of what I do as an artist is find these sorts of long-form narratives and find a way to sell it as non-fiction comic,” he says.

So far, Rat Park has been read more than 700,000 times through his website, StuartMcMillen.com, and appeared in a number of textbooks.

But more and more, his name is being recognised for something else – the ‘Canberra Birds‘ series, available as prints and cards from POP Canberra in Braddon and the gift shop at the Regatta Point Visitors Centre, to name a few locations.

The first of the Canberra Birds pieces. Photo: Stuart McMillen.

In early 2022, back from a summer holiday, Stuart had the brainwave to “do something that’s a bit more limited-scope” than his comic strips that required “a lot of research and planning”.

He painted his first bird – a cartoonish-style “rainbow-crested cockatoo”, flying over Lake Burley Griffin.

Since then, he’s come up with two lists – one made up of 57 local birds, the other various iconic locations around Canberra to serve as backdrops – and chooses from each to combine in an artwork.

Stuart researched what all these trees would look like in 30 years. Photo: Stuart McMillen.

“Whenever I feel inspired to create a new scene, I just look at the list of birds and the list of locations and just do a bit of a mix and match depending on what inspires me at that particular moment. It’s not something I can totally predict.”

He goes to great length with the detail too.

For instance, his image of the magpie flying over the National Arboretum shows the trees 30 years from now. It meant Stuart had to study a map of the arboretum’s layout and research what the trees in each area would look like in about 2050.

All in the detail … Note the light rail Stage 2B in the background. Photo: Stuart McMillen.

Working to a similar timeframe, the painting of the gang-gang cockatoos flying over City Hill shows light-rail crossing Commonwealth Avenue Bridge in the background.

The same work also swaps out the ACT Coat of Arms from the ACT flag on the City Hill flagpole for a bluebell flower, a subtle show of support for Ivo Ostyn, the flag’s original designer who also put this forward as an option to the ACT Government.

In another, starring the superb fairy wren, Stuart “snuck” himself into it alongside his wife and baby for her birthday.

“She seemed really touched by that.”

Born in Bundaberg in regional Queensland, Stuart followed his Rat Park success with a comic strip about growing up in what has been dubbed the rudest town in Australia.

His site Iusedtobearacist.com features a comic about the “mood in the school yard, which was very much full of anti-Aboriginal, anti-Asian, anti-gay, anti-women sorts of attitudes”.

“Growing up in that space and then going to university, I had to almost educate myself out of that world view.”

Born in Bundaberg in regional Queensland, Stuart used his hometown as inspiration. Photo: Stuart McMillen.

After stints in Perth and Brisbane, he moved to Canberra 11 years ago with his partner, now wife, who worked as a public servant. By that point, art had moved from weekend hobby to full-time work thanks to sales of his pieces and occasional grants.

With dozens of birds and locations still to go, needless to say ‘Canberra Birds’ will be a long-running project.

But he’s already working on his next, a graphic novel ‘The Town Without Television’ about the last town in the US to receive cable television in the 1970s.

“I guess with these comics, I’m happy to put them out into the world to exist and make people have a thoughtful experience if they read them. Whereas the Canberra Birds are designed to make nice gifts and just add a little bit of diversity of what I’m producing.”