Category: Macarthur region

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Public art at Campbelltown brightens up the Queen Street precinct

camdenhistorynotes

Murals brighten up dull spaces around town

Keep your eyes open in central Campbelltown for inspiring public art installations that brighten up dull spaces around the town.

The Campbelltown Arts Centre, in conjunction with Campbelltown City Council and the NSW Government, have a program to re-invigorate the city centre using public art.

A screenshot of the public art webpage on the website of the Campbelltown Arts Centre. Each of the seven public art projects has a dedicated webpage with detailed descriptions of the artworks, what the artist was trying to achieve and the installation specifications. (CAC, 2023)

Public art positively affects the community and people’s self-esteem, self-confidence and well-being. Campbelltown Arts Centre has created a public art website to assist people in this process and shows several murals around the Queens Street precinct.

This blog has promoted the benefits of public art in and around the Macarthur region for some time now. There are lots of interesting public artworks around the area that are hidden in plain sight. This blog has highlighted the artworks and other artefacts, memorials and monuments that promote the Cowpastures region.

An exciting local example is the Campbelltown Campus of Western Sydney University is a vibrant sculpture space.

The public art program of the Campbelltown Arts Centre and Campbelltown City Council is creative, innovative and inspirational. It is playful yet takes a serious approach to a contemporary problem, urban blight.

Urban blight hits a once-vibrant retail precinct

Campbelltown’s urban blight originates in the 1973 New Cities of Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan and the creation of the Macarthur Growth Centre.

The cover of the New Cities of Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan (State Planning Authority of NSW, 1973)

These urban planning decisions came from the 1968 Sydney Regional Outline Plan of the NSW Askin Coalition Government.

Sydney-based planning decision created tensions between Campbelltown City Council and the Macarthur Development Board around what constituted the city centre. The Queen Street precinct, supported by the council, gradually declined in importance as a retail area as newer facilities opened up.

Queen Street could not compete with the new shopping mall Macarthur Square opened in 1979 by the Hon. Paul Landa, Minister for Planning and Environment in the Wran Labor Government.

High-value-added retailing deserted the Queen Street precinct and became populated by $2-shops and op-shops.

Campbelltown’s sense of place and community identity has taken a battering in the following decades.

Reinvigoration of the Queen Street precinct

The public art program at the Campbelltown Arts Centre is trying to ameliorate the problems of the past through community engagement in art installations.

In 2022 Mayor George Griess said

The murals would enhance the local streetscape and make the area more welcoming to residents and visitors.

“The first mural is located at one of the entrances to the CBD and will add a new element to our public domain,” Cr Greiss said.

“It’s important that works to the Queen Street precinct enhance the current amenity to build pride among residents and make the area more attractive to people visiting our city,” he said.

https://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/News/CBDmurals

The mayor referred to an art installation created by Campbelltown street artist Danielle Mate ‘Raw Doings’ in Carberry Lane. The Arts Centre website states:

This vibrant and bold artwork comprises many shades of blue and purple, and is inspired by aerial views of Country and the Australian landscape.  

https://c-a-c.com.au/raw-undoings/

The mural ‘Raw Doings’ by street artists Danielle Mate was commissioned by Campbelltown City Council in 2022 (Document Photography/CAC 2022)

 In 2022 the Campbeltown City Council commissioned ‘Breathing Life / Bula ni Cegu / Paghinga ng Buhay’ by artists and designers Victoria Garcia and Bayvick Lawrance.

The Arts Centre website states:

 ‘Breathing Life’ is a celebration of Campbelltown’s thriving Pacific community, and the extensive connections between people, plants, animals and all living things.

https://c-a-c.com.au/breathing-life/

The mural ‘Breathing Life’ by artists Victoria Garcia and Bayvick Lawrance in 2022 and was commissioned by Campbelltown City Council (Document Photography/CAC 2022)

In 2012 Campbelltown City Council commissioned a mural board across the bus shelters at Campbelltown Railway Station supervised by Blak Douglas in Lithgow Street called ‘The Standout’. The art installation is the work of 28 artists across 70 panels with a full length of 175 metres.

The Arts Centre website states:

The Standout pays homage to the Dharawal Dreamtime Story of the ‘Seven Eucalypts’, and Douglas’ previous photographic series of deceased gums standing alone within landscapes and casting shadows within urban facades.

https://c-a-c.com.au/the-standout-by-blak-douglas/

The ‘Stand Out’ mural by Blak Douglas is located in Lithgow Street Campbelltown along the bus shelters outside Campbelltown Railway Station. The work was commissioned by Campbelltown City Council in 2012. (Black Douglas/CAC 2012)

The public art installation ‘Three Mobs’ by Chinese-Aboriginal artist Jason Wing was commissioned by Campbelltown City Council in 2022. The mural is located on Dumersq Street and Queen Street, the south side of the 7Eleven wall, and features a rainbow serpent as an intersection of cultures.

The Arts Centre public art website states:

Aboriginal culture reveres the rainbow serpent as the creator of all things on Earth. Chinese culture understands serpents to be a symbol for luck and abundance, and a highly desired zodiac sign.  

https://c-a-c.com.au/three-mobs/
Three Mobs mural by artist Jason Wing in 2022 commissioned by Campbelltown City Council (Document Photography 2022)

So what is public art?

Camden Council defines public art as:

Defined as any artistic work or activity designed and created by professional arts practitioners for the public domain, Public Art may be of a temporary or permanent nature and located in or part of a public open space, building or facility, including façade elements provided by either the public or private sector (not including memorials or plaques).

Public art can….

  • make art an everyday experience for residents and visitors
  • take many forms in many different materials and styles, such as lighting, sculpture, performance and artwork
  • be free-standing work or integrated into the fabric of buildings, streetscapes and outdoor spaces
  • draw its meaning from or add to the meaning of a particular site or place.
https://yourvoice.camden.nsw.gov.au/public-art-strategy

Why does public art matter?

On the website Americans for the Arts (2021) it states:

Public art humanizes the built environment and invigorates public spaces. It provides an intersection between past, present and future, between disciplines, and between ideas.

https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/PublicArtNetwork_GreenPaper.pdf

The paper maintains that public art has the potential to reinvigorate public spaces and add to their vibrancy. It states:

Throughout history, public art can be an essential element when a municipality wishes to progress economically and to be viable to its current and prospective citizens. Data strongly indicates that cities with an active and dynamic cultural scene are more attractive to individuals and business.

https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/PublicArtNetwork_GreenPaper.pdf
The statue of Elizabeth Macquarie by artist Tom Bass in Mawson Park in the Campbelltown CBD on Queen Street. The statue was commissioned by Campbelltown & Airds Historical Society in 2006 and cost $75,000. (Wikimedia)

What is the purpose of public art?

The Association for Public Art (2023) website says:

Public art can express community values, enhance our environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Placed in public sites, this art is there for everyone, a form of collective community expression. Public art is a reflection of how we see the world – the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are.

associationforpublicart.org/what-is-public-art/

Public art can be found in the most unusual places. In this case, this is a statue of a boy at Emerald Hills Shopping Centre Leppington. The statue memorialises the St Andrews Boys Home that once was located on the Emerald Hills land release site. (I Willis 2021)

To continue the story of Campbelltown, this is an excellent overview by local author Jeff McGill with many fascinating images of past and present times. (Kingsclear Publication, 2017)

Updated 17 May 2023. Originally posted on 16 May 2023 as ‘Public art at Campbellton brightens up a dull space’.

https://doi.org/10.17613/546c-t984

Art · Attachment to place · Belonging · British colonialism · Camden · Camden Mayor · Colonial Camden · Colonial frontier · Colonialism · Commemoration · Cowpastures · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Frank Brooking · Frontier violence · Heritage · History · Legends · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur region · Memorial · Memorials · Memory · Monuments · Myths · Parks · Place making · Placemaking · Public art · Sculpture · Sense of place · Settler colonialism · Settler Society · Storytelling · Uncategorized · Urban development

Governor Hunter, a Cowpastures memorial at Mount Annan

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Governors Green Heritage Park, Mount Annan

Hidden out of the way in the back streets of Mount Annan is a memorial to Governor Hunter.

This memorial is located in the Governors Green reserve in Baragil Mews, Mount Annan.

The view of the entrance off Baragil Mews to Governors Green Heritage Park at Mount Annan with the statue of Governor Hunter in the distance. The park is set in a bush reserve adjacent to residential housing. (2022 IW)

This is another hidden and largely forgotten memorial to the Cowpastures in the local area.

A bronze statue of Governor Hunter is at the centre of a circular colonnade with artworks celebrating the Cowpastures.

The land developer AV Jennings commissioned Lithgow sculptor and artist Antony Symons (1942-2018) in 1995 to construct the work.

The view of the statue of Governor Hunter as you approach it from Baragil Mews. The statue is at the centre of a circular colonnade with other parts of the artwork on the fencing. (IW 2022)

Governor Hunter and the Cow Pastures

The story of the Cowpastures begins in 1787 with the First Fleet and HMS Sirius, which collected 4 cows and 2 bulls at the Cape of Good Hope on the way out to New South Wales. After they arrived in the new colony, the stock escaped within 5 months of being landed and disappears.

In 1795 the story of the cattle is told to a convict hunter by an Aboriginal, who then tells an officer and informs Governor Hunter. Hunter sends Henry Hacking, an old seaman, to check out the story. After confirmation Governor John Hunter and Captain Waterhouse, George Bass and David Collins headed off from Parramatta, crossing the Nepean River on 17 November 1795. They find good farming land covered with good pasture and lagoons with birds. After climbing a hill (Mt Taurus), they spotted the cattle and named the Cowpastures.

Governor  John Hunter marked area on maps ‘Cow Pasture Plains’ in the region of Menangle and elsewhere on maps south of Nepean.  The breed was the Cape cattle from the First Fleet, and the district was declared out of bounds to all by 1806; the herd had grown to 3,000.

British colonialism and a settler society

Governor Hunter was part of the settler society project and the country’s dispossession of First Nations people. Hunter was a representative of British imperialism and how it implemented its policies on the colonial frontier of New South Wales.

The Cowpastures was a site of frontier violence and the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous land in the early 19th century.

Governor Hunter Statue

The statue of Governor Hunter in Governors Green Reserve at Mount Annan. The statue was commissioned by land developer AV Jennings and Lithgow sculptor Antony Symons was engaged to complete the artwork in 1995. (2022, I Willis)

Plaques below the Governor Hunter statue

The plaque on the plinth at the base of the Governor Hunter statue celebrates the reserve’s opening in 1995. (2022, I Willis)

Plaque inscription

Governor’s Green Heritage Park was presented to the people of Camden by AV Jennings and was officially opened by the Mayor of Camden Councillor FH Brooking on the 6th April 1995 in celebration of the centenary year of the discovery of the herd in 1795 at Cowpastures Camden.

Camden Mayor Frank Brooking

Frank Brooking served as Camden’s mayor from 1993 to 1997. Mr Brooking was a motor dealer whose business was located on the corner of Cawdor Road and Murray Streets and sold Morris and Volkswagon brands. Frank was a community-minded person who volunteered for the Rural Fire Service, Camden Rotary Club, Camden Show Society, Camden Area Youth Service and other organisations. He died in 2013 aged 74.

Plaque Governor Hunter statue

A plaque highlighting the history of the decision of Governor Hunter in 1795 to name the Cowpastures. The naming of the site was an act of dispossession of Dharawal country. Hunter was an agent of the British Colonial Office and its imperial interests in the settler society project of New South Wales. (2022, I Willis)

Plaque inscription

Governor John Hunter (1737-1821), Governor of New South Wales September 1795 – November 1799.

‘On the evening of my arrival…, I was directed to the place where the herd was feeding,… we ascended a hill, from which we observed an herd…feeding in a beautiful pasture in the valley I was now anxious to ascertain of what breed they were, whether natives… or the descendants of those we had so long lost, but in this attempt we were disappointed by being discovered and attached most furiously by a large and very fierce bull, which rendered it necessary for our own safety, to fire at him. Such as his violence and strength, that six balls were fired through, before any person dared approach him. I was now satisfied that they were the Cape of Good Hope breed…. offspring of these we had lost in 1788, at this time we counted sixty-one in number, young and old. They have chosen a beautiful part of the country to graze in…

Historical Records of Australia, Governor Hunter to the Duke of Portland, 21st December 1795.

AV Jennings.

Other elements of the artwork

Artwork by Antony Symons of a horned cow located on the collonaded surroundings of the Governor Hunter statue (2022, I Willis)

Artwork by Antony Symons of the Cowpastures on the colonnade surrounding the statue of Governor Hunter. The artwork comprises a settlers slab hut, Cumberland Woodland, and a farmer’s cart. The cart carries the artist’s signature. (2022 I Willis)

Artist Antony Symons’s signature is located at the bottom of the cart on the colonnade fencing. (I Willis, 2022)

A regal-looking Governor Hunter in full naval uniform. Hunter held the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy and succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second Governor of New South Wales, serving from 1795 to 1800. The artwork was commissioned by land developer AV Jennings who engaged Lithgow sculptor Antony Symons. (I Willis, 2022)

Updated on 21 May 2023. Originally posted on 13 June 2022 as ‘Cowpastures memorial at Mount Annan’

1968 Sydney Region Outline Plan · 1973 New Cities Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan · 20th century · Attachment to place · Camden · Campbelltown · Collective Memory · Country town · Cultural Heritage · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur · Macarthur region · Memory · Peri-urban region · Place making · Placemaking · Regionalism · rural-urban fringe · Ruralism · Sense of place · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Sydney's rural-urban fringe · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history · Urban Planning · Urbanism

Sydney’s urban sprawl invades the Macarthur region

camdenhistorynotes1 Comment

Urban development on Sydney’s rural-urban fringe

Sydney’s urban growth is about to invade the Macarthur region yet again. This is a re-run of the planning disasters in Campbelltown of the late 1970s. These planning decisions were originally part of the 1968 Sydney Region Outline Plan and the 1973 New Cities of Campbelltown, Camden, Appin Structure Plan.

These urban plans were grossly over-optimistic then and only appeared in the Camden LGA in the 1980s at Mount Annan and Currans Hill. Tracts of land were sold off for housing in 1973, including part of Camden Park Estate, while historic buildings in Camden were demolished – Royal Hotel.

The areas in the current proposal are: Appin & West Appin, Wilton Junction, South Campbelltown, Menangle Park, Mount Gilead and Menangle areas.

Read more @ Massive boost to housing supply for Greater Sydney with biggest release of land in 10 years (ABC News)

and more on the Department Planning website for Sydney’s south west region.

Read about the land release at Menangle Park here  (Urban Growth NSW)

Mount Annan around 2002 CHS2005
Mount Annan, NSW, a new suburb on Sydney’s urban fringe, 2002 (CHS2005/P.Mylrea)

Sydney’s metropolitan fringe is a theatre for the creation and loss of collective memories, cultural myths and community grieving around cultural icons, traditions and rituals. European settlement took the Aboriginal dreaming and then had its own dream removed by an east invasion in the form of Sydney’s urban growth.

The re-making of place in and around the fringe community of Camden and Campbelltown illustrates the destruction and reconstruction of cultural landscapes. Locals dream of retaining the aesthetics of inter-war country towns and have created an illusion of a historical myth of a ‘country town idyll’.

In the new suburbs of Oran Park, Mt Annan and Harrington Park, urbanites have invaded the area drawn by developer spin, which promised to fulfil hopes and dreams and never really lived up to the hype. Unfulfilled expectations mean that Sydney’s rural-urban fringe is a transition zone where waves of invasion and succession have created perceptions of reality, and all that is left is imagination.

Learn more about urban development in the Macarthur region.

Read more at the Sydney Journal

Read more about the suburbs on Sydney’s rural-urban fringe at the Dictionary of Sydney

Read more about the country town idyll at Camden NSW

Updated 16 May 2023. Originally posted on 21 September 2015 as ‘Development of Sydney’s urban fringe’