Fire memorial rejected

By Russell Bennett
AN EMERALD community institution is irate with Cardinia Shire Council after the council dismissed its plea for a town fire memorial.
Emerald Community House (ECH) put forward an idea for a bushfire memorial public art sculpture to be built just outside its premises on Belgrave-Gembrook Road.
“It would be to the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, family and friends and all living things that have been impacted by Victorian fires,” house coordinator Mary Farrow said.
“We submitted some rough design concepts to replace the current haggard bus shelter in front of ECH and replace it with a public sculpture that was both a bus shelter and a place where emergency information could be displayed.”
Emerald Community House announced the idea live on ABC 774 radio during a broadcast at the venue on 15 October last year.
“We submitted the idea months earlier to the Arts and Cultural officer of Cardinia (Shire) and was knocked back by their planning department,” Ms Farrow said.
“It was firmly put into the too hard basket.”
Cardinia Shire council spokesman Paul Dunlop said: “We are happy to work collaboratively with ECH to look at appropriate locations for the artwork but it was never articulated that it would be a bushfire memorial.”
Ms Farrow said ECH investigated whether it was possible to apply for funds to support the project through the Bushfire Recovery Fund, but was told that as Emerald did not suffer from fires on Black Saturday, it was not eligible.
“And when I formally inquired about the funds to create our memorial sculpture, we were told that Cardinia was to receive around $73,000 from the fund for a garden in Pakenham.”
Mr Dunlop confirmed Cardinia Shire had no immediate plans for a bushfire memorial in the Emerald area and said the new Pakenham library and hall complex was “a suggested location for a regional bushfire memorial to commemorate the Black Saturday bushfires”.
He said Pakenham was “proposed as a desirable place for the memorial because of the high-profile location and the fact that so many Cardinia Shire residents will use the facility and get to see the memorial”.
Mr Dunlop said another, smaller memorial would be erected at the Tonimbuk hall.
Ms Farrow said ECH stood by “the assertion that Emerald is the largest township in the Dandenongs, is the oldest town in the Dandenongs and the oldest town in Cardinia by all available historical accounts.
“Why is our position not better represented in Pakenham?” she asked.
Mr Dunlop responded by saying: “Council is committed to ensuring all residents in all townships in the shire have access to services and facilities.
“No one area is favoured over another and to say otherwise is incorrect.
“Every dollar is allocated according to priority.”