Two Federal grants from the Department
of Communication Information Technology and the Arts, Visions
of Australia Cultural Touring Program were awarded to Melbourne's
Living Museum of the West to auspice the research and development
of the exhibition.
Between June 1999 and April 2002 the
curator Raelene Marshall collaborated with farming communities,
special interest groups and individuals, Parks Victoria, The Royal
Botanic Gardens Sydney and Mt Annan and eleven Local Government
instrumentalities across Victoria and New South Wales.
The goal was to:
- tell the story about the multicultural craft of dry stone
walling, a craft that contributed to the clearing and shaping
of significant parts of the Australian landscape.
- highlight the desire of a significant number of people to
protect a part of our cultural heritage that commenced in the
mid the 1800's and remains today as testimony to a time when
immigrant artisan skills portrayed the patterns of Australia's
early settlement.
- raise the profile of, and acknowledge the aesthetic, practical
and symbolic characteristics associated with a wide range of
dry stone walling styles.
- provide contributors with an opportunity to identify and acknowledge
the historical and cultural significance of their of dry stone
walls.
- address the pressing need to capture and tell the dry stone
story before time and urban development takes its toll.
- discuss and raise local, state and countrywide issues such
as heritage, preservation, restoration, waller training and
environmental issues
