City of Melville Harmony Bridge Launch

Community Development Officer – Aboriginal Liaison, Gail Beck said it was a community art project by local resident Angie Thomas, and Anna Horsten, which involved input from children and acknowledged the 13 different cultural groups residing in Willagee. The City received funds from the Rotary Club of Melville to start the project.

“About 75 pieces of artwork, done by children from Caralee Community School and Willagee Community Centre users, are installed in the bridge, with messages of peace and living in harmony,” she said. “It stemmed from a community request to create a project that would be symbolic and bring the community together.”

As part of the launch, Mayor Russell Aubrey helped cut the ribbon, while Caralee students sung ‘I Am Australian’ in Noongar language and walked hand-in-hand in pairs across the bridge, representing the 13 different cultures that attend the school.

Mayor Aubrey acknowledged on the day the combined effort of the artists, community groups and children who took part in the project, and the Rotary Club of Melville for its generous project funding. “It was wonderful to witness an array of cultures together in a show of unity and community spirit at the long-awaited launch event,” he said.

The park, next to Willagee Library, is named George Humes Park after the late golden gloves boxer who was born in Narrogin and lived in Willagee in later life. Gloves form part of the mosaic artwork in the bridge as a memento to him.