The Muster Point

The Muster Point
Artist	Julie Squires
Year	1999
Type	Steel and bronze sculpture
Location	Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
	32°53′57″S151°45′13″E / 32.89917°S 151.75361°E

Last updated November 13, 2019

The Muster Point is a monumental public sculpture in Newcastle, Australia that commemorates the Newcastle Steelworks of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) and its workers. The plant closed after 84 years in operation. One former worker estimated that "from 1915 to 1961 over 67,000 people had worked on the site".^[1] It was fabricated of steel and bronze by sculptor Julie Squires and BHP workers in the Fabrication Shop before the plant closed down.^[1]^[2] The seventy tonne monument is eight metres high, sixteen metres long and twelve metres wide, and demonstrates the significance of steel making to the city of Newcastle. It was installed on Industrial Drive, in the suburb of Mayfield in 1999.

Public art is art in any media that has been planned and executed with the intention of being staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. Public art is significant within the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies and practitioners of public art, to whom it signifies a working practice of site specificity, community involvement and collaboration. Public art may include any art which is exhibited in a public space including publicly accessible buildings, but often it is not that simple. Rather, the relationship between the content and audience, what the art is saying and to whom, is just as important if not more important than its physical location.

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas. It is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area which includes most parts of the local government areas of City of Newcastle, City of Lake Macquarie, City of Cessnock, City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council.

Mayfield is a north-western suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, which takes its name from Ada May a daughter of the landowner there, John Scholey. Its boundaries are the Hunter River to the north, the Main Northern railway line to the south, the railway line to Newcastle Harbour to the east, and open ground to the west.

Site

The land on which the work is installed is part of the site of the steelworks, originally chosen for its proximity to coal. The art work site in Muster Point Park was important to the members of the Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association and to former employees, who wanted to build the memorial.^[1] The nearby Newcastle Steelworkers Memorial by artist/ blacksmith Will Maguire which specifically "honours those who lost their lives in the steelmaking industry in Newcastle from 1915 to 1999" was dedicated on 2 June 2015.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon are removed from the sourced iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium, carbon and vanadium are added to produce different grades of steel. Limiting dissolved gases such as nitrogen and oxygen and entrained impurities in the steel is also important to ensure the quality of the products cast from the liquid steel.

Artist

Sculptor Julie Squires was born in Newcastle in 1966. She trained at the Hunter Institute of Technology and Newcastle University and has created other works in bronze and other public art works in Newcastle, including Destiny at Dyke Point, which was commissioned by the Newcastle Port Corporation "to mark 200 years of operation as Australia's first commercial port".^[6]

Newcastle University university in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Newcastle University is a public research university in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. The university can trace its origins to a School of Medicine and Surgery, established in 1834, and to the College of Physical Science, founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form one division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Port of Newcastle is a major seaport in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales Australia.

Design

The Muster Point is designed as a "walk-through" steel and bronze sculpture with gates that are locked but can be opened to allow access.^[7] The sculptor described the Muster Point work "as a visual analogy to reflect the real life experiences of the employees of the Newcastle Steelworks, prior to the closure of the plant".^[7]^[8]

Items associated with work at the steelworks are included in the design. For example, there is a whistle and a clock as well as a locomotive driver to represent the rail that moved all the steel.^[1] The images of four men on the gates represent friendship and the four walls create a skyline profile that references the one seen when looking at the plant.^[9] The cats are in recognition that the animals were dumped in the area.^[1]

A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as multiple units, motor coaches, railcars or power cars; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight.

The relevant trade unions associated with steel manufacture are acknowledged by their initials, incorporated into one wall. Among them are the Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), the Transport Workers Union of Australia (TWA), the Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU), the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU), the Operative Painters and Decorators Union (OPDU), the Federated Clerks Union of Australia (FCU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).

The Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1911 and 1991. It represented labourers and semi-skilled workers employed in the steel industry and ironworking, and later also the chemical industry.

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) was a union which covered waterside workers, seafarers, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. The MUA was formed in 1993 with merger of the Seamen's Union of Australia and the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia.

Transport Workers Union of Australia Trade union

The Transport Workers Union of Australia (TWU) is a trade union with over 90,000 members throughout Australia. It has 5 main branches in Australia

A cross is incorporated into the design to honour the people who lost their lives doing dangerous work for BHP.^[10]

Related Research Articles

BHP, formerly known as BHP Billiton, is the trading entity of BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, an Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum dual-listed public company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fifth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Gawler and Mount Barker. At the 2016 Census, Whyalla had an urban population of 21,751. It is a seaport located on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula and is known as the "Steel City" due to its integrated steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. The port of Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903.

Consett is a town in the north-west of County Durham, England, about 14 miles (23 km) south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001.

The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with 860,294 members across North America. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers represents workers in Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, paper, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers and health care.

In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the Little Steel strike in the United States.

Cringila is an intercity train station located in Cringila, Australia, on the South Coast railway line's Port Kembla branch. The station serves NSW TrainLink trains travelling south to Port Kembla and north to Wollongong and Sydney.

The National Day of Mourning, or Workers’ Mourning Day is observed in Canada on 28 April. It commemorates workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness due to workplace related hazards and occupational exposures.

Lysaght was founded in 1880 by John Lysaght as a subsidiary to the company John Lysaght and Co. The company pioneered modern steel coating technologies (Galvanization). Its coated steel building products were sold under the ‘ORB’ brand and contributed to Australian architectural style.

The history of the modern steel industry began in the late 1850s; steel has become a staple of the world's industrial economy. This article is intended only to address the business, economic and social dimensions of the industry, since the bulk production of steel began as a result of Henry Bessemer's development of the Bessemer converter, in 1857. Previously, steel was very expensive to produce, and only used in small, expensive items, such as knives, swords and armor.

The Motherland Calls is the compositional centre of the monument-ensemble "Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin, and declared the tallest statue in the world in 1967. At 85 metres (279 ft), it is the tallest statue in Europe and the tallest statue of a woman in the world.

The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different grades. It occupies a 1,000 ha site on the shore of False Bay, Spencer Gulf and is the largest employer in Whyalla, South Australia.

Workers' Memorial is a sculpture in Indiana, United States by artist Daniel Edwards made to commemorate workers who have died on the job. The memorial consists of three bronze workers standing atop a limestone base. The statue was unveiled in 1995 on April 28, a day on which labor groups in Indianopolis annually commemorate fallen workers. Sponsored by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), labor groups paid the entire $40,000 cost of the memorial.

Terrance Kippax Plowright is an Australian artist, based in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. His works include contemporary and figurative sculptures. He has designed and created large public sculptural water features and murals, substantial public cenotaphs, commemorative cast bronze sculptures, and a large body of religious and spiritual work that includes stained glass windows, altars, lecterns, baptismal fonts and mosaics.

Great Petition is a sculpture located in Burston Reserve, near the Victorian State Parliament Building, in Melbourne, Australia. The sculpture was commissioned by the State Government of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, designed by artists Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee, and constructed by brecknock Consulting.

The Pioneer Women's Memorial is situated in the Jessie Street Gardens in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It honours the contribution of women to the colonisation of Australia.

Marc Clark MA R.B.A. is an English born Australian sculptor and print maker.

Women of Steel is a bronze sculpture that commemorates the women of Sheffield who worked in the city's steel industry during the First World War and Second World War. A work of the sculptor Martin Jennings, it was unveiled in June 2016. Women of Steel was given the Keith Hayman Award in the Sheffield Design Awards 2016 and the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association's 2017 Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture. He won again in 2018.

Sheerness Steelworks was a steel plant located at Sheerness, on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent, England. The plant opened in 1971 and produced steel via the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) method rather than as a primary metal by the smelting of iron ore. The plant has closed down twice in its history; first in 2002 and again in 2012. Current owners Liberty House, had announced plans to re-open part of the site in 2016.

References

1 2 3 4 5 Duncan, Carol (30 August 2013). "The Muster Point". ABC Newcastle. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ O'Reilly, Eddie; Harris, Janice (23 April 2015). "Newcastle artist Julie Squires creates Anzac sculpture for Orange". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ "Newcastle Steelworkers Memorial". www.monumentaustralia.org.au. Monument Australia. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ Cook, Bob (22 May 2015). "Centenary of Steel - Steelworkers Memorial". Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association.
↑ Kirkwood, Ian (2 June 2015). "Sculpture unveiled at BHP centenary memorial: Rust in Peace". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ "Julie Squires, Sculptor" . Retrieved 28 December 2016.
1 2 Scully, Anthony (9 June 2009). "Local heritage enthusiast discovers Mayfield's 'forgotten' monument". ABC Newcastle. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ Squires, Julie. "The Muster Point". Julie Squires Sculptor. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ "The Muster Point: slide show". Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association.
↑ "The Muster Point". www.monumentaustralia.org.au. Monument Australia.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 3 4 5 Duncan, Carol (30 August 2013). "The Muster Point". ABC Newcastle. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[2] O'Reilly, Eddie; Harris, Janice (23 April 2015). "Newcastle artist Julie Squires creates Anzac sculpture for Orange". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[3] "Newcastle Steelworkers Memorial". www.monumentaustralia.org.au. Monument Australia. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[4] Cook, Bob (22 May 2015). "Centenary of Steel - Steelworkers Memorial". Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association.

[5] Kirkwood, Ian (2 June 2015). "Sculpture unveiled at BHP centenary memorial: Rust in Peace". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[6] "Julie Squires, Sculptor" . Retrieved 28 December 2016.

[:1-7] 1 2 Scully, Anthony (9 June 2009). "Local heritage enthusiast discovers Mayfield's 'forgotten' monument". ABC Newcastle. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[8] Squires, Julie. "The Muster Point". Julie Squires Sculptor. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[9] "The Muster Point: slide show". Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association.

[10] "The Muster Point". www.monumentaustralia.org.au. Monument Australia.