Three sculptures will remember World War I veterans who worked on the railways in Goulburn, Moss Vale and Picton.
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Southern Tablelands Regional Arts (STARTS) obtained 50,000 in grant funding for an art project based around historic links with the railways at the end of World War I.
The Great Southern Line Anzac Story highlights the experience of veterans returning from the Great War and their links with the railway line that runs through the region.
Creating the sculptures began in 2015, with the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landing, when Southern Tablelands Arts conceived the idea.
Acclaimed visual artist Tracy Luff has since released sketch plans of the works that will stand at three railway stations along the former ‘Great Southern Line’.
Collaborating with researcher Dr Mary Hutchison from the ANU, Ms Luff has drawn on stories of struggle in the aftermath of the Great War.
“These are the stories of railway workers who worked on the Great Southern Line, enlisted and fought in World War I and then returned to work on the railway,’’ Ms Luff says.
Five Goulburn railway employees are among those who are commemorated in the sculptures - Robert Curtis, Robert Muir, William Guthrie, Joseph and John Wade worked as cleaners, firemen and engine drivers.
The saw action and returned to their railway jobs.
Southern Tablelands Arts (STARTS) executive director Susan Conroy said sculptures would not have been so informed had it not been for painstaking research into the soldiers and their families.
“The project provides an opportunity to tell an untold and vital story of this region and how the rail network played an important role in providing employment and social support to returning veterans, many of whom struggled to re-integrate into society following their war experiences,” Ms Conroy said.
“It was a recession, it was hard to get work and a lot of men were traumatised from their experiences overseas.
“When they came back from the war they could go and see the station master and he would try to find them work somewhere on the network.
“Five loco employees from Goulburn, who enlisted together, who would have all left and returned to their hometown with the sound of a train’s steam whistle in their ears, are commemorated.
“These evocative sculptures will be secured in concrete foundations once we receive the final approvals. They will be a constant source of pride for the region’s railway workforce, past and present, and wider community.
“The project has well captured soldiers’ experiences and ongoing consequences for the men and their loved ones.”