Violet Town’s Southern Aurora Memorial takes out top gong at Australian Street Art Awards

Violet Town is now home to national award-winning street art after the Southern Aurora Memorial took out a prize at the National Street Art Awards.

e township’s incredible memorial, recognising the tragic Southern Aurora train crash that took place just a er 7am on February 7, 1969, was awarded the Best Monument/Memorial at an online awards ceremony recently.

Strathbogie Shire Council Mayor Cr Laura Binks said Council was incredibly proud of the e orts of all those involved in the Southern Aurora Memorial in Violet Town.

“Not only is it fantastic for Victoria to be recognised, but for our little township to be recognised on a national scale is just incredible,” she said.

“We know a huge amount of hard work and dedication has gone into making the Southern Aurora Memorial what it is – a fantastic area paying tribute to those who lost their lives and those who supported rescue e orts a er the tragic train collision in 1969.” e incident involved the head-on collision between the intercity overnight passenger express Southern Aurora and a goods train. ere were nine fatalities and virtually all sta and passengers were injured, although o cial gures only recorded 117 o cially injured. e Southern Aurora Memorial project began in 2018 a er several discussions between e resulting overall concept was to hold a 50th anniversary event in 2019, and create a welldesigned memorial garden space on a large piece of unused railway land in Cowslip St, Violet Town. e overall theme was Helping Hands.

Sta and passengers from the train, locals from the surrounding area and passers-by put in a massive voluntary e ort to ght res, rescue people, and provide rst aid and other Support.

Violet Town locals Gary Abley and Bruce Cumming about the need to better remember the Southern Aurora Disaster in February 1969 and its signi cant impact on many people, and clearly acknowledge the amazing voluntary e orts at the time.

A call for design ideas, committee members and volunteers generated much momentum.

Gary Abley, chair of Southern Aurora Memorial Committee said, “I feel very honoured that the Southern Aurora Memorial Committee has been awarded the top prize for Street Art in the category of Memorials and Monuments.”

“We were excited when we were announced as nalists in January in the Australian Street Art Awards, so to take out a top gong really is icing on the cake.”

“I really want to pay tribute to all the creative people, those who helped guide us through their art and design especially Tim Bowtell, Lach Cumming and Chris Mann. And I want to thank our small but dedicated Southern Aurora committee for their voluntary e orts.”

“Being announced as a nalist has already brought more tourists to the town to see the Southern Aurora Memorial Garden and look around.”

Bruce Cumming, Southern Aurora Project Historian said, “ e garden space has been carefully designed and built as a calm and re ective space providing both artistic interpretations and factual information.”