The tortoise, oops, turtle has once again found its way to Bulleen Art & Garden, presumably it has wandered up from the river! which watched over the entrance to Bulleen Art & Garden from the direction of the adjoining parklands.
There has been a turtle at this site, next to the park, but the turtle has had another reincarnation, and is now named Rose.
Artist Lachlan Plain, (lachlanplain.com )who has been involved in a lot of the artwork around Bulleen Art & Garden has been busy creating a new turtle, with the help of colleague Colleen Bourke. Rose is a lady turtle with lots of personality. She is now in colour and has been crafted in fibreglass.
Installation was 21st September 2010.
The Raising of Rose
In September 2012 Rose the turtle was given a better view with new stand. This tied in with work on the new Healthy Living Waterways gate and disabled access to the parks. This is Bulleen Art & Garden’s latest way to promote the wonderful park just next to the nursery. There is a new wheelchair accessible walkway and a crafted steel gate promoting our waterways leading to the park where BAAG has a long term revegetation program.
And you can now see Rose the turtle more clearly as she emerges from the park and the Yarra, seeming to swim in mid air.
Make sure you meet Rose
Turtle history
Our turtle has quite a long history, and is a popular part of the centre. It started life as a silver tortoise created by Wayne Knoll. we saw, admired & purchased it at the Moreland Sculpture Show in 1999, at Ceres. It’s carapace was decorated with silver hub caps, and more silver insulation paper & tape added to bac k & limbs.
There have been some earlier efforts at maintenance & change, with varying success. These included additions of colour, a new frame, replacement of the shell, which didn’t quite get completed. The tortoise was also quite happy to take part in seasonal celebrations, as in this photo taken one Christmas.
