Under the Bridge, Flemington 2021
Moonee Ponds Creek, Flemington 2021
UNDER THE BRIDGE is a public art project to celebrate Moonee Ponds Creek and the local community. This project is a pilot project for Waterways Public Art Projects as well as a City of Moonee Valley Arts Recovery initiative. Murals have been painted on four pillars beneath the Tullamarine Freeway which celebrates the environmental and cultural benefits of healthy waterways to all who live locally or travel through the area on train, bike, car or by foot.
Artist Tom Civil worked with a small team of support artists Hacer Camdal, Tricia Vandal and Edwina Green and art assistants Christian Vine and Micheal Fikaris to paint murals on pillars near Debney’s Park in Flemington along the Moonee Ponds Creek Trail beside Mt Alexander Road, between The Flemington Housing Estate and Flinders Bridge Station. Come on down for a walk by the creek under the bridge!
Four 80 square metre pillar murals celebrating the Moonee Ponds Creek.
A community collaboration.
The pilot stage of the project was completed in 2021 with murals painted on four pillars beneath the CityLink Freeway in Flemington. After several years discussing options with the City of Moonee Valley Council public arts officers and making connections with Flemington Community Centre, a State Government Covid Relief grant was received and the project was run as a City of Moonee Valley Arts Recovery initiative. A project manager was selected from the local community and three support artists were chosen to give opportunity to expand professional skills in public art as well as act as a focussed community consultation group for the project which prioritised people who were First Nations, from recent migrant community or from the Flemington Housing Estate. Huge thanks to Veronica Cybulski and Machehi Kombi from MVCC for organisational and creative support and the team at Flemington Community Centre!
The site was chosen for its proximity to the Flemington Community Centre and the soon to be redeveloped Debney’s Park, as well as the high visibility to pedestrian, bike and road traffic. The pillar murals also created a more welcoming environment between Flemington Housing Estate and Flemington Bridge Train Station. We are still negotiating lighting for this site to make it safer at night and to highlight the artwork as well.
We are continuing to build relationships in the community to look for more avenues for funding and in-kind support to to paint more pillar murals celebrating the local community and Moonee Ponds Creek to create a public art trail along the shared path beside the creek.
The 4 Pillars:
Place Grounding
This real and imagined topographic map of the Moonee Ponds Creek aims to ground people in the area they are living in. The maps of waterways are always changing, both naturally from the floods and droughts of cyclic and changing weather, as well as from the alterations from human landscaping. The Moonee Ponds Creek is one of the most altered waterways in the country, and is a fascinating place to discuss the role of waterways in our community.
In many ways the creek in recent history has travelled through a very hostile environment; acting as a dumping ground for the cities pollutants, it’s natural flow and ponds have been diverted and filled in, and in parts the creek has been concreted to make a drain.
The use of a topographic map here has a double meaning, to both allude to the way in recent history the creek has been looked at by city developers as almost a ‘problem to overcome’, and in another way the reality that the creek is a corridor of life through the city to celebrate and has been a vital part of life for people for a very long time. This map aims to simply show the landscape and allow us to dream of what things once were and what they could be.
The Eels
This mural celebrates the underwater life of the creek, and features the short-finned eel, dragonfly larvae, yabbies, small local fish and water plants. Featured prominently in this mural is the local freshwater short-finned eels. One of the incredible aspects of this mysterious creature is that these fish migrate from waterways in South-eastern Australia to somewhere south east of New Guinea in the Coral Sea to breed, the sole spawning site for all local freshwater eels, with eels having to travel in excess of 3000 to 4000 kilometres to get there – then the babies travel back to the original waterways they came from! This mural aims to highlight the incredible natural and cultural value of the creek, and also the stunning journeys that are travelled in this world.
Creek Bank
This mural shows the fascinating environment where different ecosystems, from land to water, come up against each other and overlap. In ecology this creek bank environment is called the ‘riparian zone’ and refers to the interconnected area between the land and the creek. These environments are important because of their role in soil conservation, their habitat biodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems. This environment where the edges of different ecosystems come up against each other and overlap are dynamic and diverse natural areas where the home territories of various organisms overlap.
These dynamic natural areas could be seen as a metaphor for the incredible potential and ability of human relations, when our lives come to overlap.
Night Sky with Bats and Smoke
Again this mural concept speaks to the imagining of how things once were and how they could be. A night sky full of bright stars and with the smoke from a simple fire drifting through the night with flying foxes flying above. Night skies are also often associated with the ideas of dreams and the playful imagination of childhood, and also the dream of escaping the city to a more peaceful place.
Night-time in the city can often be an intimidating and dangerous place, so in a way this mural tries to visually reclaim the night as a peaceful and joyous place.
Working towards a mural art trail along the Moonee Ponds Creek
The project uses the profile of impressive public art to advocate for the environmental and cultural benefits of healthy waterways. The vision is for this project to become either an annual mural festival, or to paint further pillar murals as funding becomes available to work towards a mural art trail beside the Moonee Ponds Creek. Making this impressive local green space more welcoming for the community who live locally, visit the area as tourists, or travel through on train, bike, car or by foot.
The pilot stage of the project has been completed in 2021 with murals painted on four pillars beneath the CityLink Freeway in Flemington. They have been very well received by a broad range of community members and stakeholder organisations. With much excitement and interest about the possibility of more pillar murals.
There is also much potential for there to be events, educational tours and celebrations to coincide with the murals.
There is a strong case for co-investment in this project into the future across organisations (transport, infrastructure, environment, art and culture, community safety, etc). The project aims to use impressive large-scale public art along the creek to draw people to visit and spend time in the creek corridor, and to foster deeper informed personal connections with the creek to encourage broader community participation in the revitalisation and restoration of the Moonee Ponds Creek catchment.
Interested in being a financial or community supporter of the project?
Email us at: waterwayspublicartprojects@gmail.com
Under the Bridge.
This was a City of Moonee Valley Arts Recovery Project, as well as a pilot project for Waterways Public Art Projects. Huge thanks to Veronica Cybulski and Machehi Kombi from MVCC for organisational and creative support, as well as Ryan Coonan and the whole team at Flemington Community Centre!
Come on down for a walk by the creek under the bridge!
Video by Ben Strunin