The walls of the two murals in Lawson Street, Say Know and 40,000 Years, belong to RailCorp NSW. Therefore, local organisations had to be identified to care for the murals while meeting RailCorp’s requirements.
I am happy to report that the New South Wales Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), who with The Settlement and the community originally painted Say Know, signed a contract with RailCorp in January this year. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC) has kindly offered to take responsibility for 40,000 Years.
Once the contract is signed, the next major step for 40,000 Years will be to apply for funding for the restoration of the mural, in two stages.
First, the Redfern Station Community Group, under the auspices of The Factory/Counterpoint Community Services at Waterloo, will apply for a City of Sydney Council Matching Grant to fund a feasibility study for the complete restoration of 40,000 Years. This stage will involve consultation with the local community as well as with UrbanGrowth NSW, given plans for redevelopment of the Central to Eveleigh rail corridor.
The second stage will be to apply with MLALC for a much larger Cultural Grant to cover the actual restoration, which will be painted by the original artist, Carol Ruff.
Back to the brown paint! City of Sydney staff did a wonderful job of cleaning graffiti off both murals – which now look much brighter than they had for a long while. The anti-graffiti brown paint covers the worst of the damage on the end of 40,000 Years. After lengthy discussion with various stakeholders, it was decided not to paint a small mural on that section but to wait for the restoration of the complete mural. Instead, there are plans to incorporate information about the creation of both murals on the panel.
So the work goes on, and we would encourage and welcome more local people to become involved. So many locals influenced and featured in 40,000 Years. It is a community mural for all of us who love and care about Redfern.
