Something Rich and Strange

The Bays Precinct, with its defunct Power Station, extensive concrete aprons and crumbling edges with emergent novel ecologies is a place where material history can be easily noticed, and touched. The site has a contested history, from invasion where all signs of First Nation use has been either quarried or in-filled. Port-side working class culture has been replaced with million dollar property. A once magnificent natural landmark of Glebe Island has been flattened. What we have left on this contested ground is a collection of forms and materials that are now needed to be curated. The landscape architect has the ability to approach Glebe Island and preserve histories for remembrance and to create a deeply meaningful sense of place in reference to the site’s challenging histories. My project sought to do this through the preservation of existing form and materials, with the creation of novel native ecologies and through landscape sculpture.