Public Art Projects

'Landscape 8: Confluence', 2000. 

The Albert Street water feature is a site specific installation produced as a collaboration with John Mainwaring, architect and Joe Palumbo of Techno Water Designs, hydraulics designer and installer. The Central Mall Canopy and water overflow were designed by BVN, architects. 

Inscribed into the pool is a pattern generated from vanishing points which refer to the catenary line, the internal geometry of the pool itself, and, in acknowledgement of the history of the site, the patterns of bodily scarification recorded in early photographs taken of the First Peoples and Custodians of Mianjin - the site chosen by and named for the colonial administrator, Governor Brisbane, for the purpose of relocating British convicts in 1823.

Central to my concept was spirit of place. This is not as a static concept, which is why the feature was conceived as a dynamic trinity of water cycles. They are three interweaving cycles. The design references the tradition of the well or watering hole as a central gathering place of a community. The first cycle is contrived as a continuous cycle and imagines an ideal and desired stability. The second cycle creates a dynamic pattern of well springs.  These arcs of water appear to randomly choreograph the space and speak of a changing, less deterministic source of vitality. They celebrate difference and diversity. These cycles issue from the earth. The third is a rain cycle and has heavenly origins. It manifests as an intermittent and seasonal cascade of water from the canopy, which overhangs the pool. It addresses unpredictable sources of renewal, and the uncontrollable aspects of the natural world.

'Landscape 10: Hambeluna', 1999.                       

'Hambeluna' is an integrated landscape artwork, a collaboration with Walter Smith and Associates. The work honours the spirit of place and unique topography of the site, as well as both Indigenous and White Settlement histories. 

The work is situated in Strand Park and consists of:

1.     Earth drawing of the former lagoon Hambeluna

2.     Paper bark trees

3.     Earth mound/‘Yaminda, the Rainbow Serpent’

4.     Fissures/orientation lines/light channels in mound

5.     Orientation/light lines in pavement

6.     Viewing platform/focal point

7.     Summer Solstice and Spring Equinox markers at viewing mound

The work reinscribes the former lagoon Hambeluna back into the landscape from which it disappeared in the 1930s. The lagoon was the first campsite of the advance party of John Melton Black. It became the water supply for the first white settlement. The first log hut was built from the paper bark trees that grew beside the lagoon. Eventually, the area became denuded of trees, the water polluted, and the lagoon filled in.

To initiate this project I met with, and was given permission by, Elders of the Bindal and Wilgurukaba Peoples, the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this site, to title this artwork "Hambeluna" and to inscribe this word along with the word "Yaminda" into the porphrey. The Elders gave permission for the work to reference  the Hambeluna the Yaminda rainbow serpent legend stories, and for the wording of these stories to be made  available to the general public via signage at the viewing mound, as well as the  identification of Yaminda as present  via the earth mound in the work.

The image of Hambeluna is taken from the surveyor general's first map of Townsville, and shows the lagoon, it’s flood path and the water reserve fence. These elements are redrawn in porphyry stone. Various grass varieties  are utilised to differentiate the areas. A grid of 126 LED lights are set into the zoysia grass of the lagoon. Another 12 LED lights are placed along the flood path. Paper bark trees are replanted either side of the lagoon. 

According to one local legend, Hambeluna was the home of Yaminda, the Rainbow Serpent. A serpent shaped mound snakes across the back of the park. Four “fissures”/light channels dissect the earth mound. They function concurrently as the bands of the serpent, visual markers, gardens, and light channels. Each one has a particular orientation to a focal feature of the park. The head of the serpent, a small earth mound (80m x 20m), provides an overview of the artwork, the Strand and its surrounds. This viewing platform is on the axis of the jetty, the lagoon and the central fissure. This is a major focal point of the work and a sign with information about the artwork is on the ocean-side wall. The Summer Solstice and Spring Equinox lines are sandblasted into the pavement, leaving the text in relief.

I thank the Traditional Owners of this special place for their generosity in supporting this project, and pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.