Wollongong City Council has unveiled a public artwork on the new viewing platform at Wollongong’s Flagstaff Hill.

The artwork by Terry Cook and Jess McKenzie is based on the boat masts and chimney stacks that are visible in the harbour and city. The public artwork is a mosaic seat costing $26,000 and compliments other public artworks in Belmore Basin and Osborne Park.  These public artworks reflect the history of our unique social heritage.

General Manager David Farmer said the artwork has been integrated into The Blue Mile project to engage visitors and help enrich the public spaces with art that reflects the unique character of the historic area.

“The art work adds greatly to the experience of The Blue Mile,” Council's General Manager Mr Farmer said. “The Blue Mile precinct is an important part of the Wollongong CBD Action Plan and to see this work open for the public now helps to revitalise the city’s harbour area as well as provide visual links to the city centre.”

In a statement on their works, Cook and McKenzie said the boat masts evoke the importance of sea transport in the early stages of Wollongong’s growth, and in particular the important role of Flagstaff Hill to shipping communications. Firstly it was a signalling location and now it houses the lighthouse. The beams of light from the lighthouse will be reflected in the mosaic within the art work.

The chimney stacks reflect the industrial heritage of the city beginning with the first coke ovens which are buried nearby Flagstaff Hill and the current chimney stacks that are part of the Port Kembla cityscape.

There are also historical references through the use of Red Cedar trunks which show the first industry in the city, the convict cut stone basin that forms part of Wollongong Harbour, the declaration of the expanded harbour by Lady Belmore in 1868 and the nuns walking down to the Nuns Bath, located on the rock platform.