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.

Child Migrants Memorial, Melbourne Migration Museum, Victoria

A welsh love seat in the garden of the Victorian Migration Museum is a memorial for child migrants who were sent to Australia as part of child migration schemes during the twentieth century.

The design of the seat, made of Australian timber by Damien Wright, allows two people to sit almost side by side but facing in opposite directions. As well as referencing the heritage of some of those who were sent to Australia, the seat perhaps suggests the split in identity experienced by some child migrants, some of whom still do not know their full history.

A plaque embedded in the paving around the set reads:

This memorial is dedicated to thousands of innocent children removed from their families and loved ones and sent to Australia between 1912 and 1972 under the British and Commonwealth Child Migration Schemes. 
Funding for this memorial provided by the Australian Government. 

The funding came in the wake of the 2001 Australian Senate Report, known as the “Lost Innocents”,  which recommended memorials as a sign of acknowledgement by the Australian government of its role in the child migration schemes and acknowledgement of the contribution child migrants have made to Australian society.  However, neither the plaque not the love seat itself does much to tell this story to visitors without background knowledge.

The Migration Museum is located near Melbourne's Flinders St Station, and just  over the road from one of the bridges leading acrosss the Yarra River to the popular Southbank, where a memorial to Forgotten Australians is located.

Despite the busy location, the love seat courtyard is quite secluded. This could be a good thing for child migrants or their families who might want to spend some quiet time there. On the other hand, it also means the memorial is not well known.

Peace Park Mosaic, Noble Park

The Peace Park Mosaic began life in 1994 as Landcare Environmental Action Program (LEAP) community art project. Lead by Artist and museum curator Kitty Owens, then a recent university graduate, led an oral history project working with young refugees and migrants from the local area, Christine Mae Chua, DC June Isiderio, Carlo Rivas, Hawaa Fikak, Wajesta Ezadyar, Chan Chiem, Siemchou Vongsikeo, Liam Chi Dang.
The mosaic mural that grew from the project is a war memorial with a difference, expressing the experience of conflict from the perspective of civilians.
A printed tile plaque reads:

This mural is dedicated to the friends and relatives of this area who died in war and to those people we have been separated from in the process of migration.
It is also a celebration of peace.

So, although it is dedicated to people who died, it also acknowledges another form of loss, that caused by separation. Behind this story, is also the story of the traumatic experience of living through war.
Originally attached to the wall of the Noble Park RSL (Return Services League), the mural needed to be removed because of building renovations in 2003. Ann Clark and Libby McKinnon had also been involved as leaders in the original project, and Libby was engaged to undertake restoration work.
The memorial is now four separate panels, with parts of the original mosaic on each panel. Although it does not have the same sense of story-telling as the original artwork, it still manages to convey the sense of loss and the pain of separation caused by war.

On thing that is really nice about this memorial is that it is located within the same space as the local war memorial. In fact, it takes up the space between the traditional war memorial and the Noble Park RSL building. In this sense, it is an ongoing reminder that war has consequences for ordinary people, not only for soldiers. This seems like an important thing to emphasize in Australia. The 2003 restoration project was undertaken because the RSL recognised the significance of this memorial. 

The Enterprise Migrant Hostel in nearby Springvale had only closed a few years before this project began, connecting this project to a more recent memorial project, the Enterprise Tribute Garden. One of the aims of that memorial is to draw attention to the difference between the welcoming, supportive refugee policies of the 1970s and 80s and today's punitive offshore processing regime. 

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?

Unfolding Lives memorial to the Forgotten Australians

The "Unfolding Lives" memorial is located in the Perth cultural centre, outside the WA Museum.

This art work was commissioned by the Federal and State (WA) governments to serve as a memorial to the lost childhood of the group of people known as the Forgotten Australians; people who suffered abuse and/or neglect within Australia’s state care institutions during the 20th century. This story is an important part of Australian’s history—some of those abused were child migrants sent from England supposedly for a ‘better life’. Others were Aboriginal children taken from their parents as part of what we now call the Stolen Generations.

The commission was organised by respected public art curator Andra Kins’s Urban Thresholds consultancy and designed by artist Judith Forest in collaboration with writer Terri-ann White. The form of the sculpture relates to its meaning as a memorial to lost childhood; it is in the shape of a ‘chatterbox’, a simple children’s game using folded paper and text.

The chatterbox and two accompanying metal tiles contain fragments of stories or testimony from Redress WA, a WA State Government initiative whereby survivors were able to apply for small ex-gratia payments and receive an apology from the State Government.

The commissioning of the memorial followed the WA Redress program, and a National Apology to the Forgotten Australians in 2009. It was dedicated in December 2010. A plaque identifies both State and Federal Governments as having commissioned the sculpture and explains that it is designed to serve as a reminder to policy makers of the importance of caring for children.

Survivors, including the Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) welcomed the memorial. One survivor, who was part of the memorial project committee, is quoted as saying, “This memorial is for healing. It’s gentle and yet it’s powerful. I just love it.”

Yet, at the same time as the memorial commission was going ahead, there was controversy about the Redress WA process. The Liberal government, having realised that the number of claimants was much higher than expected, cut the maximum payment almost by half. Some survivors said that having been required to tell their story was re-traumatising, and the process did not always lead to people feeling their story had been ‘heard.’

Questions:

Has the Unfolding Lives memorial brought healing? Has it helped to raise awareness, to give survivors that reassurance that their experience has been acknowledged?
Does this memorial create the impression that children only experienced abuse in the past, and that the past is over and done with?
The Perth Cultural Centre website advertises Unfolding Lives as a memorial acknowledging those who overcame adversity. But what about those who have not ‘overcome’ and who continue to be adversely affected by their childhood experiences?

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.