Geraldton/Fremantle Residency 2011

Reflection, Documentation

2011-12-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

I'm heading back to Melbourne tomorrow night. It has been a great month, full of surprises. I met my Great Uncle Doug on Saturday. He is 93 and going strong. I knew he was in the RAAF during the war, but not that he was based at Geraldton, nor that he was part of the air search looking for HMAS Sydney. Or does my memory trick me, and did my maternal grandma tell me this once? He described their method and the gravity of their mission, both in terms of the massive personal loss, and in relation to Australia's close proximity to the war, and he referred to the vastness of the sea.
Of course it is a coincidence that one day his niece (my mum) would marry the son of one of the men serving on Sydney, but it does remind me once again that Australia had an even smaller population then than it does now, and these sort of connections or coincidences were not uncommon, which is perhaps one of the reasons why her loss rippled for so many decades.

Carnarvon, making the rubbings, you can see dad's shadow in one image. He actually held one side of the paper roll while I did the rubbings, especially when the wind picked up.

When walking between the plaques all sorts of life revealed itself. Lizards, ant nests.....

Plastic flowers, left by relatives or friends. Indigenous and weedy species pushing their way between the flowers and the plaque, creating unexpected bouquets.

East Carnarvon Primary School arrived in bus loads on Friday November 18. Along with sprigs of rosemary they had written poems. Each person from the Sydney was remembered via the children's poems and the rosemary they placed at each marker. Two girls invited us to join them for a poem. It was a lovely end to our Carnarvon trip.

15 x 43

2011-11-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent the best part of the day installing each of the cyanotypes in the Fremantle Art Centre Studio. As you can see they are turning a corner. It would be interesting to see them against one wall, but I do like how it creates the sense of a solid mass of water.

The Carnarvon Rubbings

2011-11-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

It was nearly 500km from Geraldton to the Memorial Drive at Carnarvon. We stopped briefly at the Stromatolites at the foot of the Shark Bay turn off, but apart from that the next 48 hours were dedicated to the task at hand. Dad and I made a graphite rubbing of every plaque in the avenue.

This was our first view of the Memorial Avenue at Carnarvon. The leaves of the palms blowing with the wind.

The health of the trees varied along the drive, due in part to locusts and the flood of December 2010, and perhaps also because it is a huge job to maintain these sort of 'living' memorials. The third plaque is Rick's (dad's dad), a bit damaged in front of the danger sign. Don't be fooled though, up close and in the landscape it was all very beautiful, wild flowers, lizards (photos to come in later posts).

Golden hour, at the end of 10 hours of graphite rubbings: 6.30pm, Thursday 17th November.
Dad looking forward to a cold frosty.

And here are the 2300 odd metres of greaseproof paper with the 645 rubbings, installed temporarily back in Geraldton at ACDC.