Dockland

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Dockland an ongoing contested site

Waterfront dispute

Monday 7th April 2008 was the 10 years anniversary of the waterfront dispute between the Patricks Corporation and the Maritime Union. The union was holding one minutes silence to commemorate of the event. Protagonists from that time were interviewed on both radio and television and were still quite heated in their views, especially Chris Corrigan, then owner of Patricks. Another key person from the dispute was Greg Combet, who has been prominent recently in the defeat of the Howard government and its WorkChoice legislation. The terminology of both sides is couched in analogies of war and battle – fulfilling the ideological stereotypes of Capital versus the Organised Labour Movement. How unions particularly create Mythology around an event. Also of interest is how each side views themselves as the winning side.

I had previously noticed on informational signs on Dock 9 an historic image of men in a rowboat subtitled “chasing non-unionists down the river.” In terms of the project ImpossibleImprobable it gave rise to considerations of the recurring nature of conflict at the site. How fixed ideologies on both sides gave rise to unresolved tensions, which could be viewed as a notional polemical rapids, a concept compatible with the physical nature of the Staircase site.

ImpossibleImprobable Docklands - 'Under'

Interface with the water

My initial response to Docklands was sparked on the first day when a group of us were heading off to lunch. We noticed a wake moving across the surface of the water. As it came closer we realized that it was a fish, perhaps a Port Jackson shark. It continued until it came near the Dock on which we were standing then turned around swimming near the surface for a short while until it went deeper.

The water at Docklands while the key feature is kept at a distance. There is no place to meet the water, to dip in your toes. There are spaces provided for ‘water enthusiasts’ at the marinas and the moored boats for hire. The issue of how to physically connect with the water at Docklands led me to ImpossibleImprobable interactive concepts.

Using a greywater laundry diverter hose I experimented with blowing into the water. This created patterns successfully, but would need the end of the pipe weighted to be stronger visually. In the end I also tried listening to the tube as you would a shell at the beach. Faint sounds were produced similar to those that can be heard when a human stomach or intestines are active.

This developed through discussion into the piece ‘Under.’ The greywater tube was suspended through an existing hole in the cement floor of the dock. The sound was amplified using equipment designed to pick up birdcalls and had a set of headphones attached. The sounds that could be heard were the lapping of the water against the piers and the pipe echoing. At times such as the opening night the ambient sounds from the people above mixed with and at times dominated the sound emerging from below.

The piece reflects the difficulty of connecting with the water as even while walking on a dock the building is such a solid structure it is a struggled to reconcile one experience with the other. That you are physically walking above water.

Dockland past and present

What might the Dockland site have been like prior to white settlement? What is found at Docklands now? This piece was temporarily installed in writing around both sides of an entry door to the exhibition space.

‘Extensive grassy plains, soil stiff and shallow…swampy shore…sandy hills…good soil…Fresh (water)’
Matthew Flinders on ‘The Investigator,’ 1802,
from Flinders chart of Port Phillip Bay.

‘Boats for sale, jackhammer in the distance…jellyfish float…highrise apartments…lego coloured offices…open, windy, dry…salt water reflections…sculptures, trams, few people…’
Michal Teague, investigation, 2008