Thursday, August 11, 2011

camel trek


And it is indeed a trek.

But a wonderful one, which is about to come to a halt in a leafy, semi-suburban park.

From my research into my award-winning information book, Hoosh! Camels in Australia,came the idea for a picture book about a very snotty camel, called Columbia. Gabe Cunnett was the illustrator for Columbia Sneezes! and he created a most unusual, bespeckled camel with an enormous hump.

Some years later, the Onkaparinga Council in SA deemed Columbia worthy enough a character to be added as a metal sculpture to their wondrous Storyboard Walk, set up in Thalassa Park, Aberfoyle Park.

Thanks to the two sculptors involved, Dani Gacesa McLean and Trevor Wren, I now have more details about the project. Columbia will be constructed from 12mm thick mild steel and the palm tree leaves will be treated with a copper surface finish.

The palm tree will be 3m in height and Columbia will be just over 2m in height.

Columbia will join many other storybook characters in the park, and I hope all the children and adults who wander down the path will enjoy seeing the very sneezy, snotty camel!
Columbia will be unveiled to a huge fanfare of waving handkerchiefs on Saturday, September 3, 2011.

No comments:

Post a Comment