Blog

Day 9 was an exciting day on site at the Wadeye Media pavilion. It was a Tuesday, the day after the Queen’s Birthday. Whilst being irrelevant for nearly everybody everywhere (well, the footy was a thrilling see-sawing affair with quite a few magpie totems in the crowd), the Bower team celebrated, as it meant we could finally get our hands on some smooth concrete mixed in the barrel of a truck, rather than a gritty brew inside a rusty old wheelbarrow.

Nearing the end of the Bower 17 build phase, the Pavilion was taking shape and almost at a point of completion. The last of the formwork was assembled and positioned ready for the following day’s pour. The A/V equipment was also securely mounted within the Media Box and all cabling was organized to provide a clear area for internal storage.

After a night camping among the sand dunes at Wadeye Beach, the moon hung low on the horizon as we drove in to town for another days work.  It was straight back into the finalizing of various tasks from the previous afternoon - completing the formwork for more bench seats around the screen, while work continued on the fixing and replacing of the roof purlins in the old pavilion roof structure.

The day begun in a flurry of dust and sweat. An early start saw the weary eyed travellers on site at 7:30am but ready to battle.

It was a busy day on site; two concrete pours, and the arrival of Stewart and Astrid from ARUP, and Lyndon Ormond-Parker. The pavilion is starting to take shape into the media cultural hub of Wadeye and there is lots of keen community interest.

Concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete…. the concrete arrived! Yay!

The Wadeye Media Box really started to take shape today with the installation of the frame for the screen, an electricity pole to connect the Box to the streets power line, and the formwork being set out for the seating around the screen. Also the pavilion was neatened up by removing some old insulation that was decaying and hanging down (see picture).

The first day began meeting Mark Crocombe at the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum, a history centre containing Wadeye’s story of a shared cultural ethos between Rainbow, a culturally significant figure within the Thamarrurr region, and Father Docherty, a prominent catholic missionary.