By Corey Everitt
May this year saw a blunder from Cardinia Shire Council, at least in the eyes of some residents, as they unveiled a new public art at Pakenham Outdoor Pool which cost them $15,000 and was met with widespread disappointment as the pitched ‘mural’ was rather an artwork on a piece of mesh cable-tied to a chain-link fence.
The artwork was first pitched in 2021 and was proposed to bring a bit of colour to the old pool and cover up the pool shed which was considered unsavoury to look at.
Many in the community assumed it would be a traditional mural, as it was originally called when first proposed.
When it was first unveiled it would then be referred to broadly as an artwork, because rather than depicted on a surface it was a piece of fabric on a fence with artwork depicting various summer and pool related items.
It went viral on Pakenham Noticeboard, a Facebook group of 42,000 members, so many individual posts were made on the mural, the moderator started deleting them.
Pakenham local Dorothy Murphy wasn’t pleased with the final work, she didn’t understand why the theme was not related to the more unique choice of the pool’s Olympic history.
While she also didn’t believe it even achieved its objective of covering the pool shed as the fabric used was 50 per cent transparent for crime prevention reasons, according to the council.
Most of all, the artwork touched a nerve for many as the pool has been the site of a community campaign called Save the Pakenham Outdoor Swimming Pool which protests the perceived poor conditions and maintenance of the beloved pool.
For many the splash of cash on the poorly received artwork felt like a waste that could have been better spent on the pool itself, prompting Dorothy to plead: “Some people can’t afford to go to Gumbuya World, this pool is what we have.”
