“We packed up all the stuff we could out of our artist studios, and then documented what we brought with us,” he says. “It’s a resource list, because every society has a finite amount of resources until they figure out what they can trade or they explore and find more.”

Cockatoo Island has a rich history of its own and its uses have changed over time – it’s been everything from a colonial prison to industrial school, and most recently a shipyard. Perran says it’s a prime location to begin again. “Everyone who’s come to Australia – except for the Aborigines – came here with whatever they could carry to start a new life,” he says.

“They’ve come with their history, but they’ve also come to this new land with all of these ideas of a grand new society, starting from scratch with what they could carry.”

The six founding members of the society bring with them a wide range of skills, which Perran says was ideal for the project.

“When you’re starting a new society, you need a diverse pool of people. There’s a prosthetic artist, Damian Martin; Emily McDaniel, who’s a sound artist with an Aboriginal background and she works at MCA and the Art Gallery Of NSW; Jesse Cox, a sculptor with a history degree; Justin Harvey who lectures at UTS in new media and Adam Parsons, a landscape architect.”

Newcomers will also be welcomed into the society during the festival. “We’re thinking of setting up a border control, signing people in with visas, taking fingerprints and checking for fruit and veg,” Perran says.

While the project hasn’t turned Lord Of The Flies just yet, Perran says part of the appeal is nobody knows what will happen. “We don’t know what it will mean.”

The Underbelly Arts Festival features more than 150 musicians, dancers and performers showing their work on Cockatoo Island.