The stories of three prominent figures in the Australian Air Force, Army and Navy have been honored in a mural in Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills.
The Macclesfield RSL building features the artwork as part of a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of our country’s involvement in World War Two.
Artist Cat Dean learned the stories of the service-people before painting their black-and-white and sepia tone images juxtaposed with colourful symbolic images.
“I was provided with reference photos… and I wanted to make sure that I represented these people in the best way I possibly could, but then also add in the brightness of the poppies and the brightness of the sunset to attract people of all generations, ’cause these people are not just generic figures, they’re actually people who served, they’re people with names and stories and connections,” Cat Dean told ARN’s Adam and Jennie this morning.
The images feature former school teacher RAAF navigator Hubert George Caryle, on the left, who was killed in a flying battle over France on June 25 1944, Gwendolen Mary Taverner in the centre, who lived at Macclesfield before enlisting into the army’s Voluntary Aid Detachment unit. A year on from being discharged, she died in a local car crash at the age of 25. On the right of the mural is Ronald Matthew Vogt, a Flaxley farm laborer turned navy soldier, who died in battle at the age of 22 with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia. The HMAS Sydney sank during the night with no survivors.
“It is just a reminder, the sacrifices made by these people, they were so young. That was really eye-opening for me,” Cat Dean told ARN’s Adam and Jennie.
The mural has a prominent position on the main street and includes a QR code which takes viewers to a webpage where they can read about each figure.
