Enterprise Tribute Garden, Springvale,Victoria

The Enterprise Tribute Garden is located in the grounds of Lexington Gardens aged care facility in Spingvale, an outer suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The 'tribute' remembers the site's prior use as the Enterprise Hostel, an Australian Government reception facility for migrants and refugees.

Marking a mid-point between the post-war programs that saw non-British migrants housed in ex-army barracks in remote locations, the Enterprise Hostel was seen as a new approach, where migrants were offered up to 12 months of supported hostel-style accommodation (depending on need) to assist their transition to life in Australia. The Hostel opened in 1970, initially housing mostly migrants. From the mid-1970s onwards, many of the residents were refugees, and for a short time it also operated as a detention facility for a group of Cambodian refugees. Closing for a short time 1985-1988, the Enterprise finally shut its doors in 1992.

The idea to create some kind of acknowledgement came from long-term Springvale residents who had been connected to the Hostel in various ways - through the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau and the Neighbourhood House, as teachers and in local government. They wanted to pay tribute to the important role the Hostel had played in the development of their community, which they see as being enriched and transformed by the people who came through the Hostel. The project originally began as an exhibition titled "A Worthwhile Enterprise" developed for the Victorian Immigration Museum's community program. The exhibition developed into an oral history collection and online exhibition now accessible at www.enterprisehostel.org.

The title of this site is "Not a Celebration"; the memorial is certainly a celebration in many ways. However, the Tribute Garden marks the point of arrival for people who were leaving behind homes and families, often in difficult or even traumatic circumstances. For those people, it marks not only a new beginning, but a place to reflect on the events or reasons leading to their migration. For members of the Enterprise Migrant Hostel History Project team, it also serves as a reminder of the stark difference between the ethics of care and welcome shown to migrants and refugees arriving at that time, compared to current policies.

Clockwise from top: Heather, Betty and Merle
worked with migrants during the Enterprise years,
and want the story to be told. 

The Tribute Garden was developed after by landscape architecture firm Sinatra Murphy, and involved extensive community consultation. A circular path through a bed of roses, representing the often winding path of migration. The rose itself is a specially developed hybrid called the Enterprise Rose, significant because the well-tended rose beds at the front of the Enterprise Hostel were often part of migrants' first impressions of Australia, and became a symbol of the care they received.

The path leads to a central area where a wooden bench lists the number of migrants received. Two digi-glass panels shaped like rose petals are printed with a map of the world. Bubbles/droplets run in streams between two opens hands and the various countries from which migrants were received.

The Tribute Garden is part of the larger, ongoing project to tell the story of the Enterprise Hostel and how "how strong, cohesive, vibrant communities can be built when migrants and refugees are warmly welcomed through unique, innovative settlement programs based on welcome, support and respect." 

Another smaller rose garden and plaque are located outside the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau, and eventually the plan is to have a path of remembrance running through Springvale from Lexington Gardens to a newly developed community space at the local library.

The Reuniting Family, Melbourne, Victoria

"The Reuniting Family" is a figurative sculpture that tells a story common to Italian migrants in the post-war years. It depicts a family about to be re-united after years of separation - a common story at a time when young men would travel to Australia to set up a new life, bringing their family later when they could afford it. This artwork captures the ambiguities of the migrant experience - the sense of hope and new beginnings along with the pain of separation and the fear of what is and may be lost. 

An extended plaque reads: 

The battered trunk and suitcase represents the family`s past and future.  They have taken all their belongings to start anew.  Although more importantly this luggage holds the hopes, ambitions and dreams for a successful future together.

The bunch of flowers consists of the Calla Lily, a common white flower that grows profusely around Northern Italy, symbolic of the common people that migrated to Australia from Europe.  The Eucalyptus branch, native to Australia symbolises and recognises the Indigenous people, the traditional owners of this land.

The Rialto site is most appropriate for these sculptures as this was the busiest area of commerce in colonial Melbourne. 

The scuplture was funded by the Grollo Ruzzene Foundation, the charitable arm of the Grollo Group, which was responsible for the redevelopment of the Rialto in the mid 1980s. 

Stolen Generations Memorial, Sydenham Green Park

In a corner of Sydenham Green, a green space in Marrickville, Sydney, stands a sandstone and
concrete wall. Its surface is covered with boomerangs, an easily recognised Aboriginal motif that maybe in this context can be a metaphor for return. Two niches contain water bowls. A metal plaque is inscribed with these words of testimony from Link Up (NSW), an organisation that supports Aboriginal people separated from their families:

We may go home, but we cannot relive our childhood's. We may reunite with our mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles, communities, but we cannot re-live the 20, 30 40 years that we spent
without their love and care, and they cannot undo the grief and mourning they felt when we were
separated from them. We can go home to ourselves as Aboriginals, but this does not erase the attacks
inflicted on our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, by caretakers who thought their mission was to
eliminate us as Aboriginals.

A post on Monument Australia identifies the artist as Joe Hirst. However, despite its image being used on the cover of the Sydenham Green Draft Plan of Management in September 2013 the artist is not acknowledged in the document, and no mention is made of this work on the Marrickville Council's Public Art web page.

The wall seems to have been created as a memorial to the Stolen Generations, those Aboriginal people who were taken from their families as children as part of a Government policy of assimilation. The water bowls are a traditional memorial device, representing pools of tears shed. However, rather than simply a place of mourning, the text on the plaque makes this memorial challenging and confrontational. Nonetheless, the Marrickville Council describes it simply as part of telling the story of the local area.

Questions:

Is this memorial used for Sorry Day (26 May) or other local commemorations of the Stolen
Generations?
Why was this sculpture created in 1999?

Black Saturday Bushfire Memorial, Bendigo

The Bendigo Black Saturday Memorial remembers the events of 7 February 2009, when bushfires burned out of control in a number of different areas of rural Victoria. This particular memorial acknowledges a fire that burned on the edge of Bendigo, a large inland town about an hour's drive outside Melbourne, Victoria. The memorial includes the acknowledgement of a life lost; however, the major focus of the memorial is acknowledging the experience of the community that was affected by the fire.

The memorial was designed by landscape architect Karoline Klein, in consultation with a community committee, and incorporates as number of different elements which cover a large area of reserve on the corner of Happy Valley Road and the Calder Highway. The reserve on which the memorial is build backs onto
the Victoria Hill colonial gold mine site, and from this high vantage point you can still see fire marked trees. The new houses along Happy Valley Road are also a sign of where the fires burned.

The main section of the memorial is in the form of a wall, which cuts across the reserve. The first section (closest to the road) is aluminium and represents the heat of the fire, which was so hot it melted metal. The edge of the metal is bent over, and a series of 'blobs' on the ground are suggestive of molten metal. There is a gap which leads through to the mining site, and on the other side of this a section of granite wall contains a description of the circumstances of the fire, including temperatures on the day, and a list of losses:

.. the fire took the life of one resident, along with numerous pets and wildlife. It destroyed 58 homes, countless sheds and outbuildings, cars, boats and caravans.  In a few short hours it devastated an area of 500 hectares, threatening to spread to the city’s CBD, and changed the lives of so many residents forever. 

The next wall panel has an alcove in which are placed the fire-mangled relics of one of the homes that was destroyed. It includes a melted green glass bowl, a bent golf club and various other salvaged objects.

After this, with the first of three green graphic panels the memorial becomes more hopeful, although still tinged with sadness. Another text panel names the Bendigo resident who died, Mike Kane. It states that: "Bendigo remembers all those whose lives were so devastated on Black Saturday, and who fought
back with immense courage and optimism in the face of adversity".  This panel also acknowledges "the bravery and ingenuity of our emergency services workers, including our firefighters, police and ambulance service" as well as the local community and organisations which supported the community in the aftermath of the fires.

A mosaic, created as part of a community project, makes a pattern of a tree, using a design of leaves and hands printed or etched with imagery. One section in particular was created by family and friends of the deceased man. A similar mosaic is on the other side of the wall, although on this side the overall design is of blossoming flowers. It seems that a number of people used the mosaic to acknowledge pets who died in the fire.

A final section of wall leads towards the "Fire Tree", a sculpture by local artist Anton Hassel made of metal and acting as a kind of wind chime, bringing soothing sounds to the memorial landscape.

A path leads from the gap in the panels towards a seating area in the shade of a large tree. Other trees have been planted around but are yet to offer any shade. Here the formal memorial plaque reads:

Bendigo Bushfire Memorial.  A special place of reflection, this memorial was installed to commemorate the devastating Black Saturday fires in Bendigo on 7 February 2009.  
The memorial is a lasting reminder of our community’s incredible courage and spirit. Bendigo will 
remember.  

Before the fire, the reserve on which this memorial is built was very run down and not well used. The installation of the memorial has included new seating and landscaping, and a second phase of work involved the construction of a new toilet block and barbecue area. Visitors to the memorial are probably more incidental than purposeful, as people now use the park for picnics, as well as passing through on their way to walking the paths of the old mine. In a way, the whole reserve has become a symbol of regeneration and rebuilding.

Questions:

This memorial was funded as part of the Victorian Government's bushfire recovery program. How do memorials like this help communities recover?

Uranquinty Migrant Women's Memorial

Uranquinty is a very small town just outside Wagga Wagga in rural NSW. In World War 2 the town housed a training camp for Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilots. In the post-war years, that same camp was used to house refugee and migrant women and children, who were often left behind while men went to work on ‘nation building’ projects such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme. A small rest spot opposite the Uranquinty Hotel incorporates commemoration of both these histories, as well as a small cenotaph for the region’s war dead.
The rest stop includes a toilet block and bbq area, where travellers regularly pull in to use the facilities or to visit the pub and shops across the road. The path leads from the picnic tables to a section explaining the area’s connection to the training of pilots where two flagpoles either side of a plaque commemorate those pilots who lots their lives.
Past this, surrounded by a small native garden, is a cast iron sculpture commemorating the experience of those who stayed at the Uranquinty Migrant Hostel. The sculpture depicts a woman holding a baby, and with a small girl hiding behind her skirt. Next to them is a box suitcase that clearly dates the woman into the middle of the twentieth century.
The sculpture is by local artist Canny Kinloch, and a plaque reads:

KAIA
COMMEMORATING URANQUINTY
MIGRANTS CENTRE COMMUNITY
1948-1952 

The sculpture was dedicated during a reunion event named 'Uranquinty Remembers' during Easter 2001 hosted by the Uranquinty Progress Association to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hostel.
Three signs behind tell the story, and two trees are 'sponsored' in green metal cases.
Near the memorial is a red brick path, with names engraved on many of the pavers, presumably people who spent time in the camp.
Most of those who stop to use the area don't look at the memorials or read the signs - their reason for being there is to rest and refresh themselves for the next part of their journey. But I like that this history of the migrant centre is incorporated into the other stories of the area.

Sydenham Lounge, commemorating lost community

Sydenham is an inner-Sydney suburb within the City of Marrickville. I stumbled upon the Sydenham Lounge while looking for a Stolen Generations memorial that is also located in the Sydenham Green Park. The 'Lounge' is a group of sculptures of over-sized everyday objects you might find in a suburban home—a giant teapot at the entry to the playground, a big read couch covered with a mosaic throw-rug, and a giant garage door, which after a while you realise is more like a giant fireplace, surrounded by ceramic tiles printed with enlarged newspaper cuttings which give the clues of the history of the place.

What I slowly realised, looking at the garage door and then again at a floor map and plaque near one of the park's entrances, is that this green space was just an ordinary surburban area, until the homes within it were forcibly requisitioned by the Commonwealth Government and demolished in the early 1990s because they were in the flight path for Sydney Airport's third runway.

The story reads much like the plot of 1990s Australian movie The Castle, but without the happy ending. Sydenham in the early 1990s was a small, tight-knit community with a mix of Australian-born and migrant residents. Those born overseas mainly came from Greece, Yugoslavia prior to partition, Turkey and Vietnam (Dictionary of Sydney). This mix of backgrounds is reflects on the mosaic 'rug' lying across the sofa, which has fragments of text in various languages, as well as a pattern of small aircraft, houses, faces and domestic items such as cooking utensils.

Although aircraft noise was an issue, many residents did not want leave their homes. The Sydenham Lounge artworks express a sense of loss people felt at having to leave their homes and community, as well as a sense of anger and injustice. This is expressed through the newpaper articles printed on the the tiles on either side of the 'fireplace', which not only tell the story of the airport development but also the struggle by Sydenham residents to keep their homes. 

The name 'Sydenham Lounge' plays ironically on the idea of an airport lounge, as well as the comfortable room inside a home.

The plaque at the park entrance is surrounded by a colourful mosaic map, showing the streets that made up the area now covered by Sydenhame Green. It reads:

Sydenham Green was established as an urban parkland in 1999. Formerly the residetial heart of Sydenham, the site became available through requisition of aircraft noise affected home. Original the hunting grounds of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation, the area became a farmland after colonisation before residential subdivision in the nineteenth century. This map illustrates the former neighbourhood plan of Sydenham. The design of this parkland was developed in close consultation with residents of the local area as a cultural and recreational landscape, with the aim of bringing new life to Sydenham.  

While Sydenham Lounge was created as a public art project rather than a formal memorial, the sense of loss expressed, despite the playful nature of the artworks, make it feel like a commemorative space.