MEMBERS of Menindee’s Country Women’s Association have recently completed two community arts projects on the corner of Perry and Yartla streets in the town.
Menindee’s Past and Future Project features the new Menindee Timleine and Rainbow Serpent Mosaic that have been in the making for the past four years.
Lorraine Looney of the local CWA said she came up with the idea for the public installation when visiting the Northern Territory years ago.
“I went to the gallery there and they had work out the front by traditional owners and the story in their language and English and I though wow, I wouldn’t mind that in Menindee.”
The project received funding through the Tackling Tough Times Together Initiative run by the Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal, and with support from Central Darling Shire.
The Rainbow Serpent is a mosaic made in collaboration with local school students and the wider community.
“At different times of the day and night the serpent reflects different colours which gives it a real magical look,” Ms Looney said.
“Some of the tiles are shiny so it really just brings out the beauty of the light.”
She said a mosaic artist from Broken Hill visited Menindee to teach mosaic, and the school students drew the original snake cartoon that the mosaic was based on.
“It was a bit of a town effort,” Ms Looney said.
She said she felt the timeline was important due to the lack of town history on display at Menindee.
Most of our historic buildings here were burned down or bulldozes so we’ve lost a lot of our history, it’s just gone and you cant bring it back,” she said.
“Photos are the next best things, so we made this timeline from the very beginning of the river right up until today.”
Margot Muscat helped Ms Looney on the project and said she was thrilled with the number of tourists making use of the space.
“We see kids use the space on the weekends, and visitors pulling up in their caravans,” Ms Muscat said.
“The other day both tables were full of people sitting here.”
Ms Looney said she plans to continue to add to the space, with a gateway from Perry Street using timber from the old weir next on the agenda.
