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?

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.