Deer
park Mosaic Mural
This year a ceramic and mosaic mural will
be made in the Deer Park ( Ballarat Rd
shopping strip) arcade.Brimbank Council, Deer Park Pharmacy and Gallery Sunshine Everywhere are joining forces to get this community made mural
happening. Debbie Qadri will be organizing the
workshops and installation of the mural.Workshops are being offered to the three
closest schools, - Deer park north, Deer park West, and St Peter Chanel. The project will be organized in a way that
facilitates community participation from three local schools, the parents and
friends of these schools, the Gallery Sunshine Everywhere artists and local
community members.
Concept A timeline of Deer Park history will be
told through the use of ceramic tile murals made using bisque glaze tiles and
low relief sculptured clay areas. The disparate subjects of the timeline will
be linked by the flowing river of kororoit creek winding along the wall. The
suburb was originally named Kororoit Creek by the early settlers. Kororoit is
an aboriginal word from the Woiwurrung language.Mural features will include :1.
an acknowledgement of the traditional
owners of the land, The Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. ( Debbie will
find out if the Wurrundjeri Elders wish to contribute towards the design or
text of the mural, otherwise a generic acknowledgement will be used in the
mural). The mural will give attention to the importance of the river and the
surrounding flora and fauna, for the indigenous people and the remains of scar
trees and rock remains (carving, flints and arrangements of rocks) along the
river which bear evidence of indigenous settlement.
2.
the original landscape before
colonial settlement including the important native flora and fauna of the area, Tiger snake, Eastern Blue-tongued
Lizard, Stump-tailed skink and Eastern brown snake, common froglet and growling grass frog, Yam Daisy,
native grasses, red gums by the river.3.
1824 Hume and Hovell
discovery4.
Cobb and Co coaches, Deer Park
was the last stop off on the way to the goldfields.
5.
1830’s first colonial settlers,
Irish
6.
1942 Black powder mill
7.
1870’s German settlers
8.
1871 census – showing that only
50? People lived in Deer park
9.
1874 – first explosives factory
in Melbourne built at Kororoit Creek, industrialization and factories history –
the mural will include sketches of the earliest photographs of explosives
factory, and the black powder mill.
10. 1874 Opening of Deer Park Primary School
11. 1876 Anglican church ( miles st) oldest in the state
12. 1885 The Huntclub opened.
13. 1886 Braybrook shire Hall (first council was located in Deer Park)
14. 1889 – renaming the suburb after the ‘Deer park’. The Huntclub will
be shown with depictions of the early use of the huntclub and deer.
15. 1936 A New black powder factory built in Deer Park, and enlarged
during the second world war.
16. Housing development in Deer Park
post-war
17. Deer park today – responses will be gathered from schoolchildren
about what Deer Park means to them ‘today’. To celebrate the multicultural
aspect of the area, a few classes of students will be asked to make clay
figures of themselves.
The remaining area will be filled in with
tile mosaic background of eggshell and white colours which will be able to be
sourced as donations. Community involvement·
Grades five six students at the
three most local schools will work on the ceramic tiles features. ( Deer park
north, Deer park West, St Peter Chanel)
This will include making:
local flora and fauna, representations of themselves and representations or
writing on tiles about what Deer Park means to them.·
Community members and Gallery
sunshine everywhere members will work on detailed low relief sculptures in
community workshops. In these
workshops ceramic representations of the Kororoit creek scenes, scar trees, and
historic buildings and scenes based on early photographs will be made.·
Other students will be involved
making other small ceramic parts of the murals depending on how the schools
wish to be involved. These will be simpler features such as grasses along
kororoit creek, fish for the creek, stars or clouds for the sky etc.
· There will also be opportunities for community involvement in mosaic
installation at site.
