The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 48 No 3 November 2009

Community
left: The Sirens of
Woolungah (detail)
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above: lorraine Brown and
Narelle Thomas (nght) arranging
glass tiles poor to installation
left: The Sirens of
Woolungah (detail)
The portraits of Cook were made up of several thousand images of local residents photographed
by senior students from Woonona High School, which were then digitally printed as ceramic decals by
Decal Specialists in Melbourne. When the decals were posted back to my Wombarra studio, they were
then fired to about 800°C onto commercial porcelain tiles which were subsequently set into the wall
face at Collins Rock.
The porcelain tiles inset along the top of the 1.4 metre wall incorporated local history photographs,
paintings by significant Australian artists, early botanical drawings by Joseph Banks, quotes from James
Cook's diary, accounts of mining disasters and the ongoing impact of European settlement on the
aboriginal population.
The work was developed in close consultation with the local Aboriginal land Council and conveys
restrained messages about reconciliation and ecological sustainability.
The tiles have been in place for more than a year in a very hot. harsh and windswept environment
with no noticeable deterioration of the fired images and the work enjoys great popularity with both
residents and visitors and has attracted no malicious damage or graffiti to date.
A more recent project for Wollongong Council was installed on the hugely popular upgraded
promenade along the foreshore at Wollongong Harbour and conveys stories of sirens that appear in
Aboriginal creation stories as well as the European legends in Homer's Odyssey.
While the troubles Ulysses had with the seductive and dangerous sirens and their alluring songs
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2009 95