By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
THE Healesville Memorial Hall opens its doors to some of Victoria’s forgotten gold rush history with Benno Poeder presenting a multi-layered exploration into the Chinese miners that once roamed the Upper Yarra Valley.
Incorporating elements of photography, drawing, imagery and archival material from the Victorian Gold Rush, Benno Poeder has created a series of digital images and charcoal drawings which explore the relationship between the immigrant gold miner and the landscape of the Yarra Valley in the mid-19th century.
Mr Poeder draws on his own family’s migrant experiences and the few remaining historical accounts of Chinese miners.
The digital collage and charcoal drawings work together to create a visual narrative about dreams, isolation and remembrance of the foreign landscape the newcomers encountered.
“The series grew out of a walk to the top of Mt Little Joe in the Upper Yarra Valley,” Mr Poeder said.
Mr Poeder’s stepson had taken him for a walk and told him how the mountain was riddled with old mine shafts.
“He told me that at least one of them had been dug by Chinese miners during the gold rush of the 1850s,” Mr Poeder said.
“Later I read that a Chinese miner had been buried in an unmarked grave in the original Warburton cemetery,” Mr Poeder said.
The man’s remains were taken back to his homeland one year after the burial by his family.
“It is perhaps telling that the mountain with its abandoned shafts was never home,” Mr Poeder said.
Entry to the exhibition is free and closes on Tuesday 11 November.
Contact 5966 4500.
