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‘…you can uncover fragments that you know have been discarded by the world. Real evidence. You find it lying around in jagged form, as we all do every day, and ask yourself, “how can I account for this material?” Quite literally, “what are some of the accounts I might offer so that we can make provocative sense with these fragments?” ‘ Ross Gibson, Places Past Disappearance, 2006
How can we frame the representation of PLACE (coda for a ‘site’ with meaning?) : ‘essence’ vs fragments; conspicuous vs liminal; centre vs edges; memory vs documentation; imagination vs observation. Should our methodology be predictive or trust in the uncertainty of process; does serendipity make it less authentic; is analogue (bearing the makers mark) now more virtuous than digital seduction.? Why does SITE get such a bad rap (compared to Place)? What do we mean by rigor? Can we really insert the ‘self’ and embrace subjectivity – dare I risk the loss of academic objectivity? Why is palimpsest in this context so right - but so hard to say? How can a map be a poem? Can sunsets define a place – or are they just cliché? Can landscape (really) be too beautiful? 3
The exploration and excavation (literally and conceptually) of ‘fishermen’s flat’ •
at Queenscliff – a tiny isthmus on the Bellarine
peninsula in Victoria, has provided a prism through which each of these ‘frictions’ has been filtered. But place is not just a matter of geography - place is not static – it changes over time. History (and herstory) matters; inscribing, etching and tracing a place with marks, archaeology, stories and memories. It is simultaneously witness, subject and agent in the creation of (multiple) meanings for a ‘place’. But what I have also learnt over the last three+ months (in the midst of Covid-19 travel restrictions) is that a ‘sense of place’ may also be a matter of distance. Viewed from afar, using my own and others memories, personal and institutional archives, local and remote ‘found’ artefacts as well as public digital ‘surveillance’ technologies, these
diverse
lenses
provoked
new
insights
and
different
perspectives – an ‘imaginarium’ of the ‘flats’ – that is perhaps more revealing, than if I had been physically embedded and ‘present’ in the PLACE.
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‘our Australian part of the world is strewn with vestiges of cultural and natural systems. Consider the vulnerable skeins of indigenous dreamings; the remnants of endemic ecologies; consider also the myriad systems of work and belief that have been refined elsewhere in the world and partially transplanted here.’ Ross Gibson, Places Past Disappearance, 2006
The earliest cartesian maps of the SITE, that became the ‘Place’ called Fishermen’s Flat from the mid nineteenth century, traced the headland to Port Phillip Bay, extending to the ‘spit’ pointing north. This long sand dune almost connected Queenscliff to Swan Island and created a barrier (or at least a longer journey to navigate) to the safe harbour of Swan Bay also known as ‘the ponds’. The early mappers noted the ‘endemic ecologies’ of the peninsula as acacia scrub and samphire. It was here on the samphire and saltbush flats that the first fishermen, including three Chinese, Ah Ching, Ah Ling and Lee Wy, first built their huts – separately from the ‘uptown’ grid of the main township. The samphire fringes provided stability and habitat for the sandy, tidal wetland shores of Swan Bay. It was also familiar to the colonists. Samphire was common back ‘home’ in the UK, particularly along the coastal flats of Norfolk. 5
Samphire featured (if pejoratively) in Shakespeare’s King Lear: The crows and choughs that wing the midway air Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, (Act 1V, Scene V1)
The name ‘Samphire’ is derived from the French, ‘Saint Pierre’ for St. Peter’s Herb – St Peter being the patron saint of Fishers. Samphire, also known as glasswort, Salicornia, sea asparagus or pickleweed was used as a vegetable when blanched. It was a common food source for the local indigenous people, the Wathaurong, the traditional owners of the land as well as for the colonists. Little evidence now remains of the original lush vegetation – the edges of the ‘flats’ at Swan Bay have been carved out to provide boat access to a new generation of ‘recreational’ fishers, now under (public) ‘surveillance’ 24/7 from Boat Cam (albeit with a fish eye lens). Also found in abundance on reefs in Port Philip and Swan Bay, as the local native oyster, Ostrea Angasi, - until they were harvested out of existence within a few years of the new settlers arriving. But their remnant archaeology is still present beneath the sands, as fragments of their weathered shells are exposed (ironically) through new restorative dredging around the suburban bay beaches. Only now, are the oysters returning, their spat carefully hosted at Queenscliff and 6
The fishermen had built their modest, utilitarian cottages on their Crown leased plots in the local vernacular –fashioning their architectural ‘fabrick’ from locally sourced and recycled materials. When the railway came in 1879, four more substantial cottages were built at the top of Bridge St (that used to be Fish St). Despite the contemporary angst about heritage overlays (to protect the ‘streetscape’) the significance of the ‘place’
was actually internalised.
Hidden interiors revealed a ‘curated decay’ (De Silvey, 2017) of highly decorative, hand-blocked wallpapers pasted layer on layer as fashions changed (and means allowed) on the timber and hessian lined walls. Some of these these were -by chance, luck (and more irony) preserved by their ‘banishment’ behind the Masonite modernisations of the ‘30s and ‘40’s. A ‘decorative’ archive that catalogued changing taste over time. St. Peter must have been elsewhere on the fateful day in late June 1928 when the three schoolboys, sons of local fishermen (two of whom lived in Bridge Street) were found drowned in Swan Bay. The adventurous trio, ‘borrowed’ a boat to sail to McDonald’s jetty on the other side of Swan Bay – but never made it. The tragic funeral procession that stretched three-quarters of a mile, wound its way along Wharf St, past Bridge Street on its way to the Queenscliff cemetery at Point Lonsdale. Local papers reported that the funeral, attended by about one hundred members of the Fishermen’s Union, was the largest ever seen in Queenscliff. Something worth remembering. 7
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’Samphire’ by Alison Brackenbury, New Statesman. 14th February 2016
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“ FISHERMAN’S AREA” “In 1856 a reserve for Fishermen was gazetted on the “flat” entitling them to one eighth of an acre at a yearly rental of one pound. It was about that time some small houses were erected there”. Historical Record of Queenscliffe Borough….1863-1933. Council of the Borough of Queenscliffe, 12th May, 1933
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‘A considerate partner’, Wood engraving. Published in Melbourne Punch, Vol.1, p.138 1855 Collection: State Library of Victoria
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The Argus, Monday 25 June, 1928 .p. 15.
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Cover: Shelf-Life (Detail) Mixed Media and found fragments. 1 m x 20 cm
p.12: Vernacular Collage #1. Paper collage, and digital photograph 30 x 25 cm
p.2: Swan Island/ Swan Bay. Digital image of Archival photograph and applied flora (c.1880’s). 60 x 40 cm. Original photograph by Thomas Hannay c 1859. State Library of Victoria Collection.
p.13a: Curated decay# 3. Digital photograph 50 x 40 cm
p.3: Wunderkammer, Fisher(women’s) Flat. Box sculpture, found objects and digital images. 35 x 30 cm
p.13b: Vernacular Collage # 2: Fabric collage, water colour and embroidery on hessian. 30 x 30 cm p. 14: Bridge St Modern. Composite digital image projection. 100 x 150 cm
p.4: Samphire Map. Digital (altered) Image of archival map. Queenscliff Map 6 (18--) State Library of Victoria. Collection. 40 x 40 cm
p. 15: Ostrea Angasi #1 Digital photograph 80 x 100 cm
p. 5: Chinamen’s Point, Swan Bay. Paper Collage and digital printing. 35 – 30 cm.
p.16: Ostrea Angasi # 2 Archaeology. Mixed media, found objects and glass cloche c 1870 p.17: Ostrea Angasi 50 x 25 cm Composite digital photograph 40 x 100cm
p.6: Swan Bay . Paper Collage and digital printing. 35 x 30 cm. p.7: Milieu map#1: The Flats (but textured) . Fabric collage, watercolour and embroidery on hessian. 38 x 38 cm p.8. Where I have seen it tough as grass. Digital composite projection. 100 x 60 cm p.9. Samphire Collage #1. Paper collage on digital photograph. 40 x 40 cm p.10. Samphire Surveillance. Composite digital photograph 100 x 75 cm p.11: Can landscape be too beautiful? Digital photograph. 100 x 75 cm
p. 18: Ostrea Angasi # 3 Paper collage, watercolor and digital photograph. 40 x 60 cm p.19: Walking and looking down: the depths. Digital photograph 80 x 100 cm p. 20: Something worth remembering#1. Paper collage ‘fragment’ poem. The Richmond Herald September 4, 1886. 20 x 16 cm p.21: Something worth remembering #2. Composite digital projection. 100 x 150 cm (Photograph sourced from Wane, G.’ 2003. Great news Stories of Queenscliff: 1853-2003’ Special Queenscliff Herald souvenir publication. p. 27) Inside Back Cover: Shelf-Life . Mixed Media and found fragments. 1 m x 20 cm
Lesley Alway: Representing & Remembering Place. November 2020.
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