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Fabric art installation
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RENTHAM artist Bern Barry will use 1000 metres of colourful fabric to dress 100 trees at the old Trentham racecourse over Easter, in an installation designed to recapture the colour and movement of the days when horse racing was a major town event.
This simple seat, dedicated to the memory of Friends of Cornish Hill stalwart Joan Endacott, has been stolen Image: Contributed
Memorial seat stolen
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SEAT dedicated to the memory of Friends of Cornish Hill stalwart Joan Endacott, has been stolen.
Mrs Endacott passed away last year after playing an integral role in preserving the entire Cornish Hill after it was discovered that the State Government had hatched a plan to sell it off as a housing estate. Friends committee president Margie Thomas said to recognise the achievement, Friends of Cornish Hill had arranged for the seat to be made and installed in her honour. “The timber was sourced from the Hepburn Shire transfer station and the money to make it came as a donation from one of our members. It was made by contractor and committee of management member Ed Butler. Some time between Australia Day and last weekend, February 3 and 4, the entire seat was taken.” Ms Thomas said she and the committee were extremely disappointed by the theft and hoped that whoever had taken it would rethink their actions and return it anywhere along the track. “It was a simple seat, just a log sitting on two cross pieces of timber, but it had been placed where Joan liked to sit and watch the wildflowers after discussions with the family. We also planted a blackwood tree next to the seat.” Ms Thomas said there would be no repercussions against those who had taken the seat as long as it was returned intact. Meanwhile many people have reacted on social media expressing their disgust and offering to pay for a new seat in Mrs Endacott’s memory. Others have recalled memories of Mrs Endacott and how she had contributed to the community. Last year, at a memorial service, Mrs Endacott’s daughter Judy Files said her mother was passionate about history and was one of many who rallied when the State Government’s then Department of Conservation and Natural Resources proposed the sale.
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The old one-mile long race course, on the south-west corner of the town site, operated from 1880 and attracted crowds of up to 3000 people before falling into disuse and being reclaimed by natural vegetation in the early 1900s. The track where horses’ hooves once pounded is now part of the Trentham Wombat Walk which takes in Trentham’s sights and natural attractions as it loops the town. Barry said the idea for the installation came while walking the race course bush after an overseas trip, struck on his return by his hometown’s forest beauty and thinking about how to make people aware of it. He was also moved by the story of a young jockey being killed at a race meet at the course, and recalled how little life was sometimes valued back then. “I remember the start of Banjo Paterson’s poem, Only a Jockey back then about another fatality of that era, which is prefaced with a media report of the time that read: Richard Bennison, aged 14, while riding William Tell in his training, was thrown and killed. The horse is luckily uninjured," Barry said. “The objective of the installation is to bring attention to the beauty of this forest as well as the plight of the jockeys in the early days of racing, where it would seem the horse was more important than the jockey, as seen in that poem.” He plans to spend three days wrapping the trees to heights of up to 2.5 metres in a variety of bright colours to echo the colours of jockeys’ silks and the colours worn by the crowds in the now long-gone grandstand. The colours have been chosen to coordinate with the tree types, colours and shapes. The giant art work will open on Saturday, March 24 and run until Sunday, April 15, to be open over school holidays (with free entry) and during Trentham’s major annual Easter Art and Craft Show. Barry hopes his installation will attract many visitors to experience the delight it is to walk on the Wombat Trail. The fabric will be removed at the end of the installation period and is being attached and subsequently removed in a manner to ensure no trees are harmed.
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