There are a few obscure references in that title!
- The first is to "The Footsteps of Mr Kurtz" an excellent book by Michaela Wong about President Mobutu of the DRC. (That title is itself a reference to the main character in "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad.)
- The second is to Prince Harry's preferred name when he was in the British Army. He visited Footscray on Wednesday this week as we did on Friday.
We visited different parts of the area to Harry, and I doubt I'd have got on to the turf of Whitten Oval. Our reason for visiting was to explore the Heavenly Queen Temple, which we had seen from the train as we went to Williamstown a few weeks ago. A helpful staffer from the City of Maribyrnong had provided us with a map of the area.
Our route was starting at the station and more or less following the orange line, diverting to the yellow line, then the blue line and back on the green line. These nice little cottages were in the area around the station. I hope they survive.
Art of various sorts over the train line. There is more on the big mural at the end of this post.
More art, this time on a fence around St Monica's Catholic primary School. The hand-text below the Indian flag notes support by the City of Maribyrnong.
More modern buildings beside the Maribyrnong River. There are disused railway tracks preserved along there as a nod to the history of the area.
The bouldering wall was a nice initiative in the supports of the bridge taking Hopkins St over the River.
A little obfuscation in the days of AI identity theft.
A distant view of the Temple.
This is "Flathead' made by Les "Lally" Saunders an Elder of the traditional owners as described in
this blog about the Sculptures in the area.
A ghostly image of the city through a shower that had just passed over us,
An interesting mosaic.
I hope that clicking on the image will let read the speech balloons. "Birds give me anxiety" is attributed to the dog!
Looking across the river shows more art in/on the Holcim cement store.
The temple was open and easy to move around. This
site explains a little of the background, where English translations are given. The background practices are
Taoist.
These small figures are on every roof line.
The dragons are on the roof ridge of the main hall.
The site is nowhere near completed.
The next three images are inside (what I think was described on a sign as) the Buddhist library.
This is another part of the same building. It is very much an active site with people making offerings (this man is holding a large bunch of lit incense sticks) ...
. and praying.
Every building has a prominent stone showing who opened the building.
This is the Drum Tower: it wasn't in use this day.
The main entrance gate. It is not the entrance yet, with a rather tatty fence between it and the riverside path.
A more typical foundation stone for this complex, quoting the $$ and the name of the donors.
Blossom and ribbons on the steps leading to the main hall.
Some of the altars inside the main hall.
A supernatural being of some description. He looks rather angry!
Another being, painted on a door to the main hall
Leaving the complex and walking along the river reveals to statue of Mazu, the Heavenly Queen. We didn't realise it was there when we were inside the site. It is said somewhere that the statue is 16m high, is made of gold-plated stainless steel and was imported from Nanjing.
I think these are cement stores.
A very fuzzy Pam the Bird.
A less fuzzy version, showing her name. Very close to the railway bridge.
The fence near the statue was interesting for birds inluding a small flock of Eurasian Tree Sparrows, which while uncommon generally seem to be seen regularly there (according to reports to eBird. There were some ponds between the statue and the river and more when under the railway line, where we saw a Darter, which flew off into a palm tree, possibly joining another.
A little further along the track we got into the Newell's Paddock Conservation area with some good ponds and nice vegetation. A Great Egret (and partly visible to the left a Wascally Wabbit).
Getting back into the built up area (at the end of the blue track shown in the map at the start) the area seemed a little rough, with litter spilt from bins all over the road. However the grot soon vanished and we were back in nice older housing.
A pretty Rose Robin painted on a blind (and note the charging cord going in to the car.
These works are on the Southern side of the railway line, opposite a playground. Hard to argue with the point being made!
Getting closer to the station we got a better look at the mural in the background of an earlier image (the third in this post) and I found this blog post explained about it. It is of Franco Cozzo who ran a furniture store, on the wall of which it is painted. According to an article on the Hun website (note: Heesco is the artist who has painted Yarram):
- Heesco is among a group of street artists behind the giant mural of Franco who has been a household name in the area for almost half a century.
- Franco made a name for himself after appearing on TV ads where he would spruik the furniture at his “Brunsawicka” and “Footisgray” stores, in a mix of English, Italian and Greek.
- Heesco said the local icon, painted with his arms outstretched, was welcoming people into Footscray.
I have no idea why there are angels flying around him! Until I found the linked websites I thought the image was of an evangelist.
We finished our expedition with a visit to the Footscray Market. A wonderful place which is much more like markets we have been to in various spots in SE Asia or the Pacific. It made the QVM seen very insipid and Anglo. Frances noted it seemed have to more of an emphasis on meat and seafood (I noticed more restaurants as well) although there were some vegie stores. A few vegies, some packet spices and a kilo of cheap Tiger Prawns were purchased.
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