The three panel-configuration of the gates lends itself perfectly to the artist’s vision to depict the stories that are critical to his life and world view, and the world view of the Barkandji people. The central panel tells the story of the Seven Sisters who, as in the story handed down through time, appear to be drawn up to the sky. The Ngatyi (Rainbow Serpent) is depicted on the left-hand panel against a backdrop of Barkandji country and south-western New South Wales. The right-hand panel depicts the Makwarra, or eagle, and the Kilparra, crow, the two moieties of the Barkandji people. Bates is a Makwarra person, and says, when the eagle flies, ‘that's me coming back to my Country, and the crows have never left – they’re still there protecting people’. The lily forms recall when the big white flowers of the Barka lilies reappeared after the Barka started to flow following a decade of drought. The message that Bates understood from that was, ‘when we look after Country, everything can grow’.