A PROJECT has been designed to recognise the lives of local residents who played major roles in the development of the Bathurst.
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A cultural heritage garden in Peace Park will centre around 20 cast iron pillars originally taken from the rear of the Royal Hotel. They will be known as the pillars of Bathurst.
However, at Wednesday’s meeting of Bathurst Regional Council, Cr Monica Morse expressed concern that if the project goes ahead in the proposed location it might obscure the iconic Conversation sculpture. She asked if council staff could look at an alternative location.
The project came from council’s newly adopted heritage strategy which recommended the development of a new interpretive project to commemorate the lives of past Bathurst citizens.
The identity of the first 22 people to be featured on the Pillars of Bathurst remains a closely guarded secret, however, it is known they will come from a range of different eras including 1815 to 1865, 1866 to 1915, 1916 to 1965 and 1966 to present day.
Cr Tracey Carpenter agreed with Cr Morse on this issue.
“When I saw the site I thought we were cramming too many monuments in one area,” she said.
“Consideration could be given to parks that may be underdeveloped before we race to erect it on this site without consideration of future projects.”
Cr Bobby Bourke agreed that council needed to take a bit more time to get it right.
However, Cr Paul Toole urged caution, saying he was happy for other locations to be considered within Bicentennial Park but not in other parks.
“People will be upset if we just dump it down in some other park,” he said.
As a result council agreed for the project to go ahead under the provision that staff look at alternate locations within Bicentennial Park.
Funds for the project have already been included in council’s 2011-12 management plan.
Director of planning David Shaw said council’s planners, the tourism manager, recreation manager, heritage adviser and local historian Rob McLaughlin have been working together on the project.
“We want to commemorate the lives of past citizens of the Bathurst region who have contributed in some way to the development of Bathurst or whose story contributes to a wider understanding of the history of the region, particularly history that is otherwise not widely known or recorded,” Mr Shaw’s report states.
Each pillar will represent four people, with a plaque attached to each side of the square base.
“A total of 80 people will therefore be able to be commemorated when the project is completed and the columns will be laid out to form archways as part of a colonnade.”
Plaques will be attached to the base of the pillars including the person’s name, date of birth and death and key description word such as “war hero”, “community leader”.
A brochure will provide a brief history of those named on each pillar.
“This will be further supported by a QR code for scanning on a smart phone linking the user back to a web-site with a more detailed history of the identities,” Mr Shaw said. “Two additional interpretative signs will also be installed to explain the project and where the pillars came from and provide the QR code for scanning.”