Des McKenna O.A.M – Woodcarver & Sculptor

Melbourne City Council – Tianjin Children’s Garden

The Melbourne City Council decided to recognise 25 years of sister city relationship with Tianjin in China by doing the design work to transform an existing garden into an interactive children’s garden and donating a number of sculptures of Australian animals carved from Australian timber. The garden design (see insert above) incorporates symbols of Melbourne icons such as the city, Yarra River, parks and gardens and Port Phillip Bay.

Three Melbourne based wood artists, Des, Kevin Gilders and Rod Jones, were selected to carve a variety of animals.

Des provided a large goanna and a koala. All the sculptures were from River Red gum and were airfreighted to Tianjin in July 2006 in time for an official opening ceremony attended by representatives of the MCC.

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