New art celebrates Glasshouse Country

By Kirra Livingstone

A NEW art piece that explores and celebrates the cultural connections of the Glass House Mountains and Beerwah has been unveiled.

TORY Richards’ bronze sculpture

‘Mountain People’ is the newest addition to the Sunshine Coast Council’s Public Art Collection. It was revealed in Beerwah’s Turner Park on June 7.

The $25,000 project was funded by the Sunshine Coast Council through Division 1 Councillor Rick Baberowski’s discretionary fund. Ms Richards said the contemporary sculpture, which took her around five months to complete, represents the deep culture of Beerwah and the Glass House Mountains region.

“It represents the community of Beerwah, the history of Beerwah and its endeavors to blend the natural environment to the current and past community members,” she said.

“It talks about the support the community has extended to one another, and it draws on the natural textures of the landscape, including the rock face of the Glass House Mountains.

“The original idea was a photograph I took about eight years ago here, and it kept coming back to me, of the cut back custard apple trees with the stark angles set against Crookneck.” The local artist also explained the process of creating ‘Mountain People,’ which was different to her usual art practice.

“It was sculpted in oil-based clay because typically I sculpt around my work, and oilbased clay doesn’t dry out as much, so it’s easier when you have to stop and start a fair bit,” she said.

Four-hour parking at Village

FOUR-hour parking limits have been introduced to the Beerwah Village Marketplace.

The limits replace the three-hour maximums for overstaying, following the state government’s crackdown on private car parking operators that used Department of Transport data to pursue car owners for unpaid ‘invoices’.

The controversial practice was canned by the government following an uproar from the public.

Issues included the fact that only the registered owners of the car could be pursued for unpaid payments even if they weren’t the driver.

ASX-listed Smart Parking acknowledged publicly that the changes would have a material impact on their operations.

The move to four-hour parking in Beerwah also fast-tracked time on street parking rules on Beerwah and Simpson Street.

Village Marketplace management told GC&M News that they urged people to be responsible and stick to the four-hour limit.

They added that the car park was there for the use of shoppers and not for any other use, particularly train users.

The previous car park manager of the site, PriPark, is no longer contracted to the Marketplace.

“I embedded rock from the Glasshouse quarry, Hanson’s quarry, into the surface too… but I usually do a lot of realistic portraiture …so this was a first for me and I enjoyed it immensely.”

Rick Baberowski said the new sculpture adds to the beautiful landscape of Beerwah, and identified the need for public art in Turner Park. “This remarkable bronze on basalt artwork beautifully complements the murals and public art in the surrounding township and provides one more opportunity to enjoy the parklands and invite further visitation to Beerwah,” he said.