Acclaimed Melbourne artist Robyne Latham.
Acclaimed Melbourne artist Robyne Latham has been selected to create a bronze sculpture in the new Greensborough Station precinct as part of the Hurstbridge Line Duplication, which will duplicate 3.5km of the Hurstbridge Line and provide more trains, more often and less crowding on peak trains.
A proud Yamatji woman from Western Australia, Robyne has lived and worked in Melbourne for more than three decades and her Indigenous heritage underpins her artistic practice, which includes sculpture, painting, ceramics and set design.
Her works have been displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria, Shepparton Art Gallery, Deakin University, La Trobe University, The Berndt Museum and the Koorie Heritage Trust Museum. She also recently unveiled a major public art commission for the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
While researching the flora and fauna of the Greensborough area, Robyne was fascinated by the lifecycle of one of Victoria’s most threatened orchids, the Rosella Spider-orchid. The native flower is believed to rely on underground fungi and a small native calictid bee to survive.
The flower is no longer found throughout central Victoria but remains in a protected area in Greensborough.
The Rosella Spider Orchard.
After consulting with Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Di Kerr, Robyne has started work on the 2.3-metre-high bronze sculpture which will be an abstract representation of the Rosella Spider-orchid.
Robyn’s selection was informed by feedback from the community in 2020 about what locals wanted to see represented in public art and the top considerations included bushland themes and cultural and Indigenous heritage.
'I’m thrilled to deliver artwork for the Hurstbridge Line Duplication based on community feedback, and what’s intriguing about the Rosella Spider-orchid is its survival is hinged upon a complex and reciprocal exchange between the orchid, an underground fungus and a native bee,' Robyne said.
'This work honours and acknowledges that for some 35,000 years or more, prior to colonisation, the Rosella Spider-orchid flourished on the lands of Wurundjeri Wandoon people of the Greater Kulin Nation'.
The sculpture will be installed in the new, modern Greensborough Station precinct which will feature greater weather protection on the platforms, better and safer connections to the surrounding area, and a new 100-space car park and bus interchange to make connecting to trains, buses and the local shopping strip quicker and easier.
By the middle of 2023, trains will be running along 3.5km of new duplicated track between Greensborough and Montmorency and Diamond Creek and Wattle Glen and stopping at the new Greensborough and Montmorency stations.
As part of the project, platform 2 at Diamond Creek Station will be upgraded and a new pedestrian crossing will be built behind Diamond Valley College.