How it came about

My name is Kelly Skinner. I have lived in Newstead since 1989. In January 2022, I was awarded Mount Alexander Shire Senior Citizen of the Year.

I guess this put me on their radar, because in late March, I received a phone call from the council asking if I would be the voice of Newstead for the interpretive sign to be installed on the corner of Panmure & Lyons Street as part of the Panmure Street streetscape works.

“Sure,” I replied, wondering to myself what an interpretive sign is.

A meeting was arranged for two days later at the installation site. In the meantime, I did a bit of homework on interpretive signs. I realized that there is one at the Rotunda-less Park so down I went for a look.

Here is what that sign looks like:

Notice it also has a guerilla installation detailing the history of the former rotunda for which the park had been named.

The sign itself is dense with information and imagery, obviously the result of a lot of research.

I didn’t have time for that sort of research. The sign proposed by the council had to be installed by June 10th, so artworks had to be commissioned a number of weeks before that.

I had about six weeks, therefore, to come up with concept, content and artwork.

I spoke with a few people in town and council spoke with Dja Dja Wurring Elder Uncle Rick Nelson and Welcome to Country Project Co-ordinator Donna Spiller. From this came the idea of an installation primarily in the footpath. These would be five round stones, sandblasted with a minimal number of images and words to evoke the stories, rather than detailing them. There would also be a large stone installed on the corner to tie in all the stories.

I held a Listening Post on the corner on March 26th, assisted by Geordie Dowell. I had five sheets of A3 paper with headings on them of the five aspects of Newstead we had identified – Newstead Town, First Nations, Community, Arts & Culture and Flora & Fauna/The Environment. On each, I had written a few key words.

A few people stopped and engaged, and added their suggestions.

Then it was time to find the artists. I asked Bob Clutterbuck if he would take on the job of recruiting the artists and overseeing that phase of development.

Dean Smith and I went to Pyrenees Quarries and looked at the possibilities, focusing on local stone if possible. We were educated in this by the long-serving Dave, a font of knowledge on stone and on putting artwork on stone.

At the time of writing this, drafts of most of the artwork have been completed. The next stage is to make the final selection of stone for the artwork and the paving, and to start building the web site.

This web site is the place where the stories evoked by the installation can be told.