Wollongong City Council will splash out on $300,000 worth of new public art as it works to cash in on the heritage and tourism potential of Port Kembla’s Hill 60.
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The council has called for artists to pitch ideas for five separate art works, worth between $50,000 and $75,000 each, which would be installed at various places along a new heritage walk around the area.
Known as the Ngaraba-aan Trail, the walkway will celebrate Aboriginal history and link Port Kembla heritage park to Coomaditchie Reserve.
According to the five tender invitations on the council’s website, Hill 60 and the surrounding beaches and parks “contains a rare suite of Aboriginal sites which demonstrate the evolving pattern of Aboriginal cultural history and the Aboriginal land rights struggle”.
Three of the works require an Aboriginal arts or lead artist to explore themes like traditional fishing methods, European settlement and indigenous creation stories.
The first work, for which the council has budgeted $50,000 will be placed at MM Beach, and should explore disruption for the Aboriginal community from the early 1900s to before World War II.
Another $50,000 work to be installed near the ramp at Fishermans Beach should respond to the way the Aboriginal community used boats and nets to fish off the coast, as well as the settlement in coastal huts around Hill 60 and Fishermans beach.
At the summit, a $75,000 art project will mark the Five Islands creation story.
The other two works, to be installed at Hill 60’s lower car park and picnic area and the southern slope looking over Port Kembla, are open to all artists.
These works are required to explore the themes of the area as a “battleground” due to its role in defence and industry during WWII and the way the environment has changed.
The expressions of interest for all works close on June 20.
Art works must be designed to appeal to residents, tourists, school groups and bus tours, and the applications must take design, installation and fabrication into account when considering the costs.
A panel will assess all submissions and make a recommendation, and the decision will then be referred to a future meeting of councillors for determination.
The Ngaraba-aan Trail has been developed by elders and other Aboriginal residents since the 1990s.
The project is part of the council’s plans to make Hill 60 more accessible for tourists, and received almost $400,000 from the NSW Government’s Port Kembla Community Investment Fund.
The council adopted a new landscape master plan for the headland at the end of 2015.