Woodanilling Skate Park Revitalisation 2023

 

The project has it's beginnings in 2022 when I received a phone call 📞from Woodanilling Shire Councillor and resident Kahlia Stephens - asking if I'd be interested in revisiting the Woodanilling skate park.  It had been 10 years since the original project was completed and I welcomed👏 the opportunity to participate.  

Getting there............The project required combining numerous funding and community partners within a confined time frame whilst providing opportunities for maximum community participation.  Pulling the project together wasn't easy and demanded a determined focus........Unfortunately initial funding applications were rejected and alternative funding sources sought and secured.  This resulted in the original timeframe being extended and new funding and community partner aspects being introduced into the mix.  Fast forward to December 2023.......Thanks to Kahlia's efforts in securing project funding partners and Woodanilling community support, the project began in December 2023. 

Interestingly, the new project dynamics combined to create richer and more satisfying outcomes that ultimately resulted in a very successful project.

 

Some of the Woodanilling community members that participated in the project. 

 a small wildflower growing in the nearby bushland to the skate park

The project ran over a 2 week period - 7 days a week - 9:00am till 5:00pm, and consisted of two main components.  (1) The painting of the skate park (2) The painting of personal art panels at the local Woodanilling Golf Club.  The community/personal art panels being fixed onto the surrounding skate park fence.  All Woodanilling residents were encouraged to join in........their scope of participation being their choice........Students of the Woodanilling Primary School provided drawings, from which an element of each drawing was included in the painting of the skate park.

 

At the beginning of the project, some of the community members participating in the painting of the personal art panels were treated to an excellent presentation by Genevieve Harvey, the Wagin - Woodanilling Landcare Officer.  Genevieve gave a very informative overview of the unique fauna to be found in the Woodanilling Shire.

 

 During the painting of the community personal panels, participants were encouraged to visually express the unique flora and fauna, and or, an aspect of living in Woodanilling that appealed to them.  With the tremendous help of the Men of Woodanilling Men's Shed the resulting community panels were fixed to the surrounding skate park fence, and now form a colourful outdoor gallery.

An exciting development of the project was the community decision to paint 2 feature art panels that would be fixed to the exterior walls of the public toilet block at Town park/skate park.  Much discussion was had in determining the panel content.  Local artists, Collette and Pauline painted the 2 feature panels expressing some of Woodanilling' s unique flora and fauna.  The Woodanilling Men's Shed proudly framed and mounted the artworks that now feature as an excellent addition to the amenity of the site.

Thank you to Kahlia, Woodanilling community members, the Shire of Woodanilling, Woodanilling Men's Shed, Woodanilling Primary school, Woodanilling Playgroup, Woodanilling Sports Committee, Woodanilling CWA and CBH through Community Grass Roots.

Serpentine Heritage and Culture Trail

Serpentine Heritage and Culture Trail continued

Gloria standing on the new access pathway

When entering the cemetery through the gate visitors view two smaller decorative panels marking the transition through an area of remnant bush land.  These panels give recognition to both indigenous and introduced flora, whilst two larger panels have been installed at the Cemetery Burial Plot end of the pathway, marking the introduction to the formal burial area.  These two larger panels have incorporated an angel motif and were specifically designed to reflect an image that transcended the confines of any one religion whilst embracing all faiths.  

 

Serpentine has many unique stories that combine to make its character, these stories also express the history of the location and are reflective of the struggle of the early settlement of the state.  The surrounding district encompasses a large area of the original land holding allocated to Sir Thomas Peel.  The lead artists worked with members of the Serpentine Historical Society to uncover a wealth of old photographs.  Many of these images had been made available to the Society for use in the project and provided an exceptional visual record of historical and cultural value.  The diversity of content was quite overwhelming, unfortunately not all images could be included within the context of the community artworks produced during the project.  However, it is pleasing that a comprehensive selection of images were chosen and fixed to the ceramic tiles.  These images were translated into under-glaze using a highly specialised process and subsequently fired in a kiln to produce images of exceptional permanence. 

A selection of 64 images were chosen for inclusion into the base area of the interpretive stands and these were fixed around the perimeter of the horizontal surface of the base areas. The interpretive plaque stands and accompanying photo tiles provide visitors and residents with a kaleidoscope of images, highlighting the many different people and activities of the Serpentine community and remain as an interesting and permanent display of cultural and historical information.

 

Photo of a family with their group settlement tent