TWELVE months ago, King Island Landcare supported by the King Island Council cut back an overgrown tree and bushes, cleared grass and weeds and created a new shipwreck memorial “anchor garden” on the corner of Huxley and Main streets.
Eve Woolmore and Nathalie Amaral from Landcare created a walking path and received very positive feedback from the community for their renovation work.
A year later with continued cleanup, planting and seaweed mulching, the community is once again full of praise for the Landcare team.
In 1985, the King Island Jaycees, (ceased) proposed that a competition be held to find an appropriate design to incorporate one of the two shipwrecks anchors they had stored in seawater and the anchor’s preservative to be done by the Queen Victoria Museum.
Gary Strickland said that the anchor used in the memorial is a stabiliser anchor from the Cataraqui and had been retrieved from the shipwreck site by Jaycee members with the guidance of Len Sullivan.
“It was treated and preserved by me, under the advice given by the Queen Vic Museum,” Mr Strickland said,
At that time the Jaycees also proposed that a bronze plate with the names and dates of all known shipwrecks be mounted on the monument and the original site proposed for the memorial was on the grassed area outside the library, which was then Jaycee Park and now known as Memorial Park.
The winner of the design competition was Anne Shimmins, an artist and author who lived on the island and wrote Eden Observed.
Past president of the King Island Historical Society, Sue Fisher who now lives in Tasmania, reminded the community on social media last year that there was a time capsule buried when the anchor was placed in its current location.
“From this basic structure, to this today,” she said.
“So proud of this unique and striking garden.”
“Well done to the Landcare crew,” Eve Woolmore said.