Victor Harbor Council rejects Mathew Flinders sculpture citing financial reasons

A council has voted against spending $70,000 on a sculpture celebrating the moment Australia was mapped.

Victor Harbor Council has turned down funding a sculpture celebrating the moment Matthew Flinders met French explorer Nicholas Baudin in 1802 for financial reasons.

At its December meeting, it voted against spending $70,000 on the public artwork by award-winning Fleurieu artist Clancy Warner – but would consider funding requests in its next budget.

The $160,000 Encounter Sculpture – of a whale, made of cast bronze weaving taken from local Ngarrindjeri Elder and world-renowned artist Ellen Trevorrow – would be placed in Warland Reserve.

It tells the “woven” story of the historic moment the two explorers met unexpectedly on April 8, 1802, and shared their findings to create a complete map of Australia in waters off what’s now Encounter Bay.

It would also celebrate the achievements of the local Ngarrindjeri people – who support the sculpture, and who watched the ships’ encounter from the land.

An artist impression of the proposed sculpture for Victor Harbor commemorating Matthew Flinders' meeting with Nicholas Baudin.

Sculptor Clancy Warner in 2017. Picture: Matt Loxton

Mayor Moira Jenkins said council was on a “tight budget” and couldn’t afford the money – but it remained committed to the sculpture.

A spokesperson said the council was developing a ‘no frills’ budget this year to keep rates at a minimum.

Ms Warner’s artworks of reclaimed materials are found across SA and Australia and often celebrate Indigenous heritage and culture, social justice and native fauna.

She said the sculpture also celebrated the work of Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, whose cultural weaving and sculptures are exhibited internationally.

“I knew if I was to do this piece, it had to have Ngarrindjeri history,” she said. “And especially that of Aunty Ellen Trevorrow.”

She plans to cast the elder’s weaving into bronze circles to create the whale – synonymous with the Fleurieu – which would be placed on a 3.6m concrete plinth, into which is mapped the explorers’ dual journeys and meeting.

Flint Installation – a public artwork the Port River at Newport Quays by Clancy Warner. Supplied

Old Man Rakali, public artwork at Hindmarsh by Clancy Warner. Supplied

“I’ve been talking and working with Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, to use her woven circles to create a whale, and want to use her stories in the background in a map – to say this was, and still is Ngarrindjeri land,” Ms Warner said.

Ngarrindjeri Elder and weaver Aunty Ellen Trevorrow (centre) with Jelina Haines and Aunty Noreen Kartinyeri at SA Museum, with a 4.4m-long sculpture of a southern right whale she wove from freshwater rushes. Picture: Matt Turner

“We have these two white explorers coming in and that was the history taught for many years, but we need to acknowledge and remember whose land it was and still is.”

Encounter Celebration Committee has commissioned the sculpture, and chair Graham Philp said the group had received $70,000 from philanthropist Roger Lang and other donations, but needed another $70,000 to get the sculpture in place before approvals expired.

This year is Matthew Flinders’ 250th birthday.

“Monument Australia wrote to us to say this kind of thing has never been done before,” Mr Philp said.

“The meeting was one of those historic moments for SA that’s too important not to acknowledge properly.

“It completed the mapping of Australia, and gave Australia its name when Flinders later published his memoirs. We wanted to tell the complete story of European settlers and Indigenous heritage.”

QR codes would send people to sites to tell the full stories in different languages, he said.

Ms Warner is currently reinstalling one of her public artworks in Hindmarsh, that of a rakali, which was stolen.

You can find more information and help fund the project here.