The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is to manage the installation of three commemorative bronze sculptures to mark the 250th anniversary of the first contact between the crew of HMB Endeavour and the Gweagal people on the shores of Botany Bay.
Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley said the installations would be erected at what is now Kamay Botany Bay National Park at Kurnell.
Ms Ley announced that artists Julie Squires and Theresa Ardler’s work Wi-Yanga and Gurung the Whales and the Nuwi/Canoes had been chosen along with Alison Page and Nik Lachacjzak’s Eyes of the Land and Water.
“We want all Australians to visit this culturally significant site, to help to interpret the many stories of this historic place and, more importantly, to understand its part in our shared story,” Ms Ley said.
“The Kamay 2020 Project aims to present differing perspectives of the site, and to encourage respect as [people] visit the national park, which will receive a $50 million upgrade funded by the Commonwealth and State Governments,” she said.
She said the installations were just one aspect of the larger Kamay 2020 Project which aimed to support community education and interpretation programs; provide new ways to learn about and enjoy the historically important place; and make Kamay a place of significance to all Australians who contributed to the national identity.
Ms Ley said the first stage of the project included a new visitor centre; cafe and exhibition space; ferry wharves; enhanced access around the site; restoration and repair of the historic Alpha House; and conservation works to the 19th century Cook and other monuments.
