Turtle sculpture heads to Whitsundays for reef restoration

IT’S taken more than 800 hours and 800 individual pieces in the creation of Wyong Creek sculptor Col Henry’s latest masterpiece — and it’s headed for a coral bed in the Whitsundays.

Sculptor Col Henry pictured in his workshop in Wyong Creek. Picture: Sue Graham

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IT’S taken more than 800 hours and 800 individual pieces in the creation of Wyong Creek sculptor Col Henry’s latest masterpiece.

However, this piece is nothing like any he has done before — a 6.5m x 6m turtle which will be sunk underwater in the Whitsundays.

Mr Henry was commissioned by Reef Ecologic to be part of a reef recovery and public art project to help the tourism industry bounce back from Tropical Cyclone Debbie in March 2017.

His creation is a Hawksbill sea turtle, made entirely of stainless steel, which will be seeded with coral before being sunk near Langford Reef off Hayman Island.

The assembled sculpture is ready for its trip to the Whitsundays.

“Over the past five to 10 years there has been serious devastation to the reef with bleaching events and cyclones,” Mr Henry said.

“There’s not much of the reef left in the Whitsundays; about 70-80 per cent is lost. There’s nothing to look at underwater aside from dead coral.”

Mr Henry was commissioned to make the largest sculptor in the project, and was chosen from more than 80 applicants.

“It’s a bit of a coup for me,” he said.

The sculpture will be sunk off Langford Island, Whitsundays. Picture: Tourism Australia

“I have been sculpting for a long time and this is the most technical, complicated and challenging piece. It’s the pinnacle really. I started last September and have been flat out ever since.”

He said the turtle, weighing 15 tonnes, would sit on a coral bed and be 8m underwater at high tide.

It will make the trip to the Whitsundays in pieces in April and Mr Henry will piece it together before it is sunk.

“It will be lifted up with a 30 tonne crane onto a barge and taken 50km out to sea, then the crane will hang it over the edge and drop it in,” he said.

The aim is to have it in the water by World Ocean Day on June 7, along with five other works which have been commissioned by other artists.