More Maribyrnong

On the 17th we felt the need for a crustacean evening meal so took ourselves in the direction of the Footscray market to acquire the basic ingredient.  This provides an opportunity to scout the area around the station and the market for matters of interest.  Earlier forays of this nature are in this post and that post.  It is obviously an interesting area and we have much more to cover. 

Our route today was intended to be fairly short, as we are both still recovering from foul colds.  The initial focus was the Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC hoping to see some of the installations shown in an arty post Frances found) and then heading to Nicholson St for more street art in the same post.  Here, in red, is the route we followed.

I was interested to see which Councils got Jeffed to form Maribyrnong.  It was by the standards of that exercise in 1994 (or indeed anything done by Kennett) relatively straightforward with the only complexity being South Kingsville (where? I hear you ask) escaping to Hobson's Bay.  

The Wikipedia article on the City of Maribyrnong is interesting.  I also note the extremely helpful response I got from a Council staffer when enquiring about the Temple for an earlier expedition.

We began by walking down Bunbury st ro the FCAC marvelling at this huge development nearby.  

Most of the residences along the way are small traditional cottages .  This one stood out for the collection of 'stuff' in the front yard,

At interesting poster when we got to FCAC at point 2 on the route.

Unfortunately egos are at work at the Centre so all the installations we hoped to see had vanished and the display area was fenced off.  Bums.

This one work was still visible.

This building intrigues me as there are (according to the Census) only 118 people of Croatian ancestry in Footscray and only 731 in the broader SA3 Level Maribyrnong Unit.  It seems the Club sees a much broader catchment for its membership.

We wandered into a fairly industrial area, including this large flower warehouse, at point 3, where acquired a few items for the Winter garden.  If we hadn't had to carry them I might have got a few more!

This building nearby is badged as the Dockland Cotton Mills.  It was indeed once a manufacturing site although the cotton work shifted to another factory in Yarraville, which in turn closed in 2001.  This Footscray site was the cenrtre of Lonely Planet Publications (which, according to a Google AI summary, seems to have disappeared as a useful facility into mainly an online travel agency).  The location is now a colony of artists studios although it is still the physical address for Lonely Planet.  

As an aside, look at this photgraph from Yarraville claiming to support the notion of "diversity" and see if you can work out the humour in that claim.

Most of the houses left in this area were again the historic cottages  - I suspect from early in the 20th century.

Getting to Hyde St (point 4) we were facing the Footscray City Primary School,  ...

... which according to a plaque on this element of the school was founded in 1887.

Moving a little along Hyde St we came to the Bluestone Church Art Space which appears to be a performance space operated by the City.

It is adjacent to the Council offices at point 5 ,which have this very attractive garden and indigenous decoration.

The brick wall on the LHS is the back of the City of Footscray Town (sic) Hall (dating from 1936).  I am surprised they have kept the name plate (visible from Napier St).

This building (point 6) is part of Victoria University which with with a student population of around 15,000 and staff of almost 1,200 is the second largest employer in the area. 

We now move on to the street art seen along the route. This bird and rather dark Waratah were seen along Bunbury St  as we set out.

I'm always up for a Pam the Bird, but both the style and the annotation suggest this was not the work of the main artist/perpetrator.  (As far as I can tell, after 18 months  the wheels of justice are still grinding for the Bird.)

Google Lens tells me the following work is titled Garden of life and is another work by Tom Civil.

Google Lens also tells me this mural, titled "Dogs of the West" by artist Justine McAllister, is located on Irving Street.  It was the winner of the 2019 Footscray Art Prize in the street art category.  The project was part of the Maribyrnong Council's annual StreetWORKS program, aimed at enlivening public spaces and discouraging tagging.  Ilike that each dog carries a badge with 

A nice old building and some artwork at Point 6.

A focus on the artwork. Once again Google Lens comes to the rescue.  This mural of Bunjil the eagle was painted by artist Heesco Khosnaran (whose wonderful painting at Yarram are featured in a blog from some time ago) on a townhouse in Footscray.  The abstract colors in the mural represent the multicultural heritage of the area.  Bunjil is a creator figure in Aboriginal mythology, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle. 

A huge digital photograph by Simon Terrill (recalling to me the artwork of Fred Williams).  It dates from 2005 and is showing astonishing resistance to weathering (and tagging).

A most interesting walk and I have found my on-line searching for the links above extremely worthwhile.  While I generally loathe AI, whatever underlies Google Lens is fantastic.