OPINION – Carol Altmann

* A warning, this piece includes a graphic photo from the Levys Point rendering plant which some readers may find distressing.

Next year is shaping up as a defining one for the long-term future of Warrnambool and its residents, with three major projects that will change the landscape for decades to come.

• The first is the proposed 34m-high milk processing plant and an adjacent 29m-tall cold store that will both operate 24-hours a day, seven-days a week in Scott St, Merrivale.
• The second is a $3 million upgrade of the rendering plant at Levys Point that sits adjacent to the Merri River wetlands and the Warrnambool-Port Fairy rail trail.
• And the third is a nine-level apartment and penthouse complex to replace the former Madden’s building on a prime site overlooking Merri/Gilles streets.

All three projects are linked to one of the most successful businesses and businessmen in Warrnambool: Midfield Meats and its founder, Colin McKenna, who, understandably, are always looking for opportunities to expand and build upon their already multi-million dollar status. There is nothing wrong with that.

The problem, however, is that the consequences of such expansions on the rest of us – the little people and our city – can be significant and irreversible.

As such, we have one chance to get it right, lest it all go so horribly wrong, and this is where we look to our civic leaders to act in the best interests of us all.

So far, however, most of the Warrnambool City Council and its elected members have appeared reluctant to rigorously press, probe and challenge the merits of all three projects put forward by one of Warrnambool’s most high-profile businesses, as if any “progress” is good progress.

Let’s start with the rendering plant at Levy’s Point, which was built in the 1970s at a time when the area was considered way out of town and nobody gave much thought to the environment.

In 2014, both of these things have changed dramatically.

We now care that a rendering plant is right next door to a beautiful wetlands and not only is it no longer isolated, but the Port Fairy-Warrnambool rail trail passes by its front door.

I had been warned that if you cycled along the rail trail, you could be confronted with the clawing stench and shocking sight of dismembered animal parts pushed into a meat mountain, but I didn’t quite believe it.

But yes, it is true and I can’t begin to imagine what tourists must think when they stumble across this sensory assault. The residents of nearby Merrivale, of course, have been living with the stench for years.

It is not the fault of Midfield Meats that they have inherited this location, but its application for new works at the plant provides a rare opportunity to strongly argue that it is time to relocate.

This is exactly what the Merri Wetlands Protection Group – a five member, volunteer based group – will argue when it presents its case to VCAT in April.

The majority of our councillors – Crs Ermacora, Hulin, Sycopoulis and Kelson – actually agree with them, but the final position taken when two of these councillors were absent saw the vote of Crs Neoh, Gaston and Askew turn opposition into support. Go figure.

Then there is the proposed milk processing plant and cold store that will tower over the inner industrial estate and create a whole new set of issues for the people of Merrivale while adding a 10-storey and a nine-storey shed to the skyline.

In a complex set of transactions involving state and local government, the council has bent over backwards to accommodate the Midfield plans by selling them part of its depot land, yet CEO Bruce Anson said recently he had no idea the site was intended for a milk powder factory until shortly before settlement.

So again it has been left to the little people, like the We Love Merrivale group, to stand up and challenge the idea of a factory being built so close to their homes, because regardless of the assurances given about dust emissions and noise, they are the ones who will have to live with it in their backyard.

And lastly we have the nine-storey Warrnambool Apartments project that will dominate the end of Merri and Gilles streets.

This complex will replace a 1940s art-deco building that had been recommended for heritage protection, but was rejected by the council, allowing its recent demolition. (Ironically, the council is now seeking a heritage overlay on the house next door, which was built at the same time, by the same builder.)

Irrespective of what you think of the design – personally, I think it is more suited to Melbourne’s Docklands than Gilles St – the sheer height of the building at almost 30 metres is at odds with the council’s planning guidelines for the area that say buildings should be no more than 7.5m (in one section) and 10.5m (in another).

As Julie Eagles from the Warrnambool Planning and Heritage Group said so succinctly at a recent on-site briefing for objectors, “given the council’s own guidelines, what are we even doing here?”

What, indeed.

2015 is shaping up as a defining year for both our city, its leadership and grassroots activism – watch this space.

Bluestone columnist and architect CLINTON KRAUSE previously worked in Daylesford before relocating his business to Warrnambool. Clinton explores the mid-century architecture that gives our region so much character, but about which most of us know very little.

Port Fairy is renowned for its charming nineteenth century architecture, but just a street away from the town’s historic centre is a  ‘rediscovered’ retro home that is drawing the limelight away from its older siblings.

For its time, 43 James Street, the house designed by Tag Walter in 1960 for Colin and Maureen Leishmann,  brought a host of revolutionary new design ideas to the sleepy seaside hamlet.

Removal of many large and overgrown trees has revealed, once again, the wonderfully proportioned  facades of the house on the corner of Cox and James streets, with many a passerby declaring that they had never noticed the house before.

Current residents Liam and Jo Murphy, along with their young family, are only the third owners of a property which remains largely intact and true to Tag’s original plan and design.

Purchased in 2012, the house had suffered more from neglect than the  ‘vandalism’ of successive  ‘improvements’ and the Murphys were faced with extensive water damage to interior walls and floors caused by blocked gutters and deterioration of the almost dead flat metal roof and its poorly fitted skylights.

Carpets were sodden petri dishes of mould and the glass diffusers on ceiling lights were filled to the brim with rainwater.

As enthusiasts of all things retro, Liam and Jo threw themselves into the herculean task of the restoration with gusto, approaching the work with almost reverential attention to detail. Liam, in particular, is meticulous in preserving the period details and interior finishes of  the home.

Setbacks encountered along the way were faced with stoic fortitude: when baby Charlie decided to pick off a large section of the original wallpaper in the nursery, Liam set about carefully reinstating the multitude of tiny scraps and slivers with forensic diligence and considerable success.

The Murphys are also lucky to be in possession of a set of the original plans prepared by Tag which contain detailed drawings for signature installations within the house.

These include a quirky entry planter box – complete with pelmet lighting, an abstract metal privacy screen and ‘stick legs – and a suspended glass display cabinet in the kitchen: a lost feature that will be reinstated sometime in the future.

Indeed you could say this house has just about every mid century design trick in the book! Here are just a few:

• Flat rooves with wide overhanging eaves and thin fascias evoke a floating weightless effect;
• A cantilevered porch roof along with crazy paved steps and a ‘breezeblock’ screen wall make a dramatic entry statement;
• Individual bricks in walls are stepped out to create a shadow pattern effect;
• Windows of fixed and opening lime green coloured glass are laid out  in visually pleasing geometrical arrangements;
• Varying roof heights correspond with interior ceiling heights to differentiate living/entertaining areas and private sleeping zones.

With its expanses of north facing glass – in some rooms wall to wall and floor to ceiling – the house is light, warm and airy and provides a comfortable family friendly home for the Murphys and their three children.

The work undertaken by Liam and Jo demonstrates a sympathetic understanding and love of this fantastic house and it is reassuring to know that another outstanding example of mid-century design in our region is in good hands.

Note: You can read more about the legacy of Tag Walter in my November column here.

When we return in January: Googie 101

Words and photos by Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]M[/dropcap]usician Philip Trigg is the sort of person who would be quite content as a drummer for Abba or a keyboardist for the Bee Gees: part of the show, but happily anonymous.

And while Philip’s skill is in playing classical rather than pop music, he has been part of the south-west music scene for virtually his whole adult life as a violinist, cellist, pianist and teacher of all three instruments.

It is not, perhaps, the usual path for a kid who grew up surrounded by dairy farms in Purnim West – where he still lives – and who attended the rough-and-tumble-trade-driven school, Warrnambool North Tech (now part of Warrnambool College).

“There were certainly no music lessons at school, so I had to take private lessons outside of school with Miss McConachie,” Philip says.

Miss McConachie – who everyone still refers to only as Miss McConachie, never by her first name – was a legendary music teacher in Warrnambool and she proved to be an influential force on Philip.

“Miss McConachie would keep telling me I had to feel the music, to imagine I had a string on the end of my nose attached to the piano keys and bend right into it, but I always struggled,” he says, smiling.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]F[/dropcap]rustrated by Philip’s slow progress with the piano, Miss McConachie made a number of suggestions to her young student that would prove pivotal.

The first was to encourage him to choose another instrument alongside the piano: either classical guitar or violin. He chose the violin.

The second was to join the Warrnambool Theatre Company as an accompanist under the direction of the late Cyril and Joyce Haywood, to boost his confidence by taking his music to the stage.

And the third was to recommend he read a love story written in 1904 by American author, Myrtle Reed, called “The Master’s Violin ” that appears to leave a lasting impression on all those who read it.

“I don’t remember much about the story line now,” Philip says, holding a precious copy of Reed’s book, “but I know it really made an impact on me at the time.

“Miss McConachie believed that you never really feel music until you experience sorrow and I came to understand that, especially as you go through various relationships in your life.”

The weeping, soaring, sweeping sounds that can come from a violin or cello proved to be the ones that grabbed hold of Philip’s heart.

“There is so much more feeling you can get from a violin. When you play a note on a piano, there is only so much you can do with that one note, but a note on a violin can go anywhere,” he explains.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]A[/dropcap]ll three instruments – violin, cello and piano – are now constants in Philip’s life and he moves between all three, depending on the occasion.

Those early links with the WTC led to his becoming a founding member of the Cindy Lee Ensemble, started by Cindy Morgan 25 years ago, and he still plays piano accompaniment for the vocal group each Tuesday night in Koroit.

He has also played violin and cello with the Warrnambool String Quartet and the Robin Wright Strings, and teaches music at Emmanuel College, Kings College and Timboon P-12, together with private lessons.

One of his most memorable achievements, if a little unusual, was to be part of a marathon session more than 10 years ago in Port Fairy, where a group of pianists played a work by French composer, Erik Satie, for 24 hours non-stop.

Each musician played an electronic keyboard for two hours and Philip managed to complete his stint, despite some larrikin literally pulling the plug on the instrument twice.

“I just kept playing with no sound coming out. After all, the show must go on!”

While Philip is regularly on stage, including as an accompanist during the annual City of Warrnambool Eisteddfod, he rarely performs solo.

“I like the accompanist role: the show can’t go on without us, but I would prefer that you didn’t know I was there,” he laughs.

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Revealing the eye of the tiger: Peter Clayfield

Spreading joy through art: Kathryn Weatherly

Remembering the work of Robert Ulmann

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Words and photos by Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]here is something incongruous about a big Stihl chainsaw being able to transform a slab of wood into a delicate work of art, but this is exactly what Brad Hunt is perfecting.

The former wooden boat builder – he served his apprenticeship with Port Fairy master craftsman Garry Stewart – has taken his love of timber and a strong creative streak to start his own small business, the wonderfully named Pull Start Art.

Working from his father’s shed on Hopkins Point Road, Warrnambool, Brad creates smooth sculptures from a whole range of timbers, including cypress pine, redgum, black wattle and eucalypts or whatever offcuts have come his way.

“These are from 100-year-old oak trees,” he says, slapping the rough bark on a pile of stumps, some of which are almost as tall as he is.

The leftover oak was donated by a farmer who was going to push the tree stumps into a pile for later burning, “and I said, ahhh, ‘no you’re not!”’ Brad laughs.

He has similarly come by bits of timber from the original Hopkins River bridge, lumps of cypress pine found by the roadside in Melbourne and other workable logs that were destined for the scrapheap until either Brad, or his friends, intervened.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] U [/dropcap]sing one of three Stihl chainsaws, including a dime-tipped bar designed specifically for carving, Brad turns a piece of non-descript raw timber into something quite different. Sometimes it will be a whale, a dolphin or perhaps a pelican, and another it could be a chicken, horse’s head or dragonfly.

It all depends on either what he has been commissioned to make, or what he “sees” in the wood.

“Certain logs lend themselves to certain things,” Brad says, “and I can just see what I want to make from it”.

Brad can spend a week “looking” at a log, waiting for its character and shape to settle in his mind, before he starts work with the chainsaw: after all, it is not like you can start again.

“If a design doesn’t work out, and that can happen, then I will often make a smaller carving from what is left,” he says.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] A [/dropcap]fter the initial, relatively energetic chainsaw work on a piece, Brad settles into the more refined and much quieter stage of sanding and polishing, which is when the timber really comes to life.

“It really puts a smile on your face when the timber reveals itself to you through its different grains and colours,” he says.

“That is the part that I really enjoy.”

Chainsaw art is not quite where Brad, 33, imagined he would be when he first left school and enrolled in a commerce degree before realising he was not someone “to sit behind a desk” but needed to work with his hands.

The boatbuilding apprenticeship was advertised in the paper, and Brad secured an opportunity that would see him not only learn a traditional craft, but take him to the tiny Pacific island of Kiribati as a volunteer helping locals to build various watercraft.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] A [/dropcap]fter experiences like that, it is almost impossible to settle into a regular 9-5 job, so Brad decided to create his own.

Supported by the New Enterprise Initiative Scheme (NEIS) and part-time work at Deakin University, Brad launched Pull Start Art in June – and is slowly building a name for himself.

When we meet, he tells me about a major in situ commission where he will transform a 2.1m cypress pine stump on a property into a majestic horse’s head.

And while commissions are an important part of his work, he would ultimately like to see his work in local galleries.

“That’s the artistic process for me – using my own ideas and my own creativity.”

[box]The Pull Start Art studio and workshop is at 29 Hopkins Point Rd, Warrnambool (look for the whale). Ph: 0438 517 200. You can also find it on Facebook here. Brad will give a demonstration of his work at the Koroit Truck Show on the Australia Day long weekend, 2015.[/box]

OPINION – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] L [/dropcap]eading Melbourne graffiti artist Matt “Adnate” Last has been chosen to create a $13,000 interactive mural in the heart of Warrnambool.

The Ngatanwarr (“Welcome”) Mural will transform a prominent – but as yet unnamed – site with a 20sq/m mural with an indigenous theme that will be developed in consultation between the artist, who is not indigenous, and the local Aboriginal community.

The interactive mural is central to a wider project being developed by a steering committee that includes representatives from the Gunditjmara Aboriginal Cooperative, the Warrnambool City Council/Warrnambool Art Gallery, Leadership Great South Coast and the F Project, for which a total of $22,000 has been raised from various government and philanthropic sources.

Adnate is the second, high-profile spray paint artist to secure a large-scale mural commission in Warrnambool, following that of Scottie “Bonsai” Neoh, who was awarded the $15,000 commission for the Mortlake Rd pedestrian underpass.

Unlike the Bonsai commission, however, the Ngatanwarr Mural went to expressions of interest, albeit in a tight turnaround time.

The call went out in mid September, with artists given around three weeks to submit an EOI.

Chairman of the selection committee, Paul Lougheed, from Leadership Great South Coast, told us that four local artists were among those to submit an EOI, with Adnate selected “by a panel including representatives from the aboriginal community, arts community and other interested community members”.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]here is no doubt that securing the services of Adnate is a coup for Warrnambool: his striking work can be found in major cities around the world and, earlier this year, he was chosen to paint a rare, blank 23m-high wall in Melbourne’s famous Hosier Lane.

And there is no doubt that his work will be a drawcard, particularly as it will include interactive QR codes to tell the stories behind the images.

But the perennial question again comes to mind: how can local artists get ahead if they keep being overlooked for significant local commissions?

We raised this same question earlier this year with the Bonsai commission, which followed the awarding of a $20,000 commission to Melbourne artist Ewan Coates in 2010 for his bronze sculpture The Three Pillars of Gratification, and another $20,000 commission in 2011 that was won by Ballan artist Velislav Georgiev for his work Chance Encounter, that sits on the corner of Lava and Liebig streets.

It is a vexed issue.

On one hand, Warrnambool can’t simply close itself off to artists from elsewhere, but on the other, a $13,000 commission (which includes materials and equipment) is the sort of work that can start to make an art career viable to a local artist.

Unlike in metropolitan areas, major commissions are rare in the south-west and many of the murals you now see around Warrnambool were done for very little money, but significant goodwill.

We look forward to seeing what Adnate produces, but at the same time will continue to argue that at least some of these large commissions should stay “at home”.

[box]The Ngatanwarr Mural will be launched on Friday March 20, 2015, to coincide with ‘Close the Gap’ day. You can find more of Adnate’s work on his website here.[/box]

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