By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA GLEN is set to have a memorial area established in honour of the memory of those who perished during 2009’s Black Saturday bushfires and to celebrate the resilience of the town.
The piece for the area is being created by local sculptor and artist Ernst Fries and will be a feature of McKenzie Reserve, located near the playground in town.
Mr Fries said he didn’t want to think of the area as a sad memorial space, as much as a quiet area for reflection and meditation on the events that began on 7 February 2009.
“It is not a war memorial, which remembers heroic loss of life, but a memorial of a natural disaster which selected its often unprepared victims randomly,” he said.
“Its main aim must be honouring the people who lost their lives so that they are not forgotten – its ambience should reflect the resilience of the community and radiate hope for the future.”
The piece being constructed for the memorial area is a screen, constructed with Dalle de verre, a coloured, transparent glass which is faceted to transmit light.
The screen would be constructed with a piece displaying the ferocity of the bushfires, the recovery after the event and the hope for the future following the disaster, in three parts.
Mr Fries said he would like to see up-lights placed around the memorial area for each of the people who perished in the area, with their names engraved at the individual lights.
“This would enable visitors to place tributes to a particular person,” he said.
He said that he wanted to have a plaque at the memorial area with a map of the Yarra Ranges, shaded in areas affected by the bushfires.
There are numerous other components to the memorial, which the Yarra Ranges Council expects to be finished and installed by 25 November this year, in time for the fifth anniversary of Black Saturday next year.
