Cats star and school students select Anglesea exhibition pieces

ONE of the Anglesea district’s favourite sons Patrick Dangerfield was the judge of honour to select outstanding artwork drawn by local schoolkids that will form part of a historic war history exhibition.

Students from Aireys Inlet and Anglesea primary schools have reimagined the last-remaining red flowering gum tree from Anglesea’s avenue of honour into drawings, with the 10 top pieces to be blown up on 1.5-metre banners at the entrance of the Know Our Names exhibition that starts later this month.

Local historians believe that Anglesea once had 72 flowering red gums forming its avenue of honour when it was planted in 1920, each with an accompanying plaque bearing a name of a serviceperson from the First World War. Just one of the original trees remains, at Murch Crescent.

Geelong AFL star and former Aireys Inlet Primary school student Dangerfield switched his blue and white hoops for a beret on Monday when he turned art critic to help select the winning artworks to commemorate the lost war tribute.

“Because I grew up and am living in the area, and going to school at Aireys, it was good to get involved,” he said.

“My cousin who’s the worst artist you’ve ever seen, was judged to have produced a better piece of art than me when I was in Grade 6 and it was rubbish, so it was important we took this seriously and got the right artists with the right recognition.

“They did a great job and there’s some good budding young artists.”

The Anglesea war exhibition follows on from the successful Anglesea War Memorial project that finished earlier this year.

Local researchers will display the result of years of research to complete its list of names for the memorial at the show, which tells the story of almost 400 Anglesea servicepeople including photos, memorabilia, and original wartime artefacts.

Event convenor Jane Sherman said prints of local artwork would provide the perfect welcome to visitors at the end of the month.

“We looked at getting flowering gums, but they’re finished by then,” she said.

“The next best thing we could do is to get some local artwork, and who better than the children from the local schools who will be coming to the event as well.

“(The Avenue of Honour) is forgotten and lost at the moment, so it’s really to raise awareness among the students that something was here, and also to help promote the exhibition.”

Know Our Names will be on display at Anglesea Memorial Hall from April 30 until May 2.