The Wondabyne Sculptures. Where are they now?

Where are the Wondabyne Sculptures? What are they? You may well ask. Ever since I moved to live on the shores of the Hawkesbury River I’ve known about the Wondabyne Sculpture Garden. It used to be near Wondabyne Station.

Wondabyne Station

The station is one of the smallest in Australia. The platform, serving passengers arriving by boat from Mullet Creek or from the adjacent sandstone quarry, is less than 10m long. When I catch the train home from the city, the guard tells passengers alighting at Wondabyne Station to “advise the train guard and alight from the rear door of the rear carriage.”

The twelve Wondabyne Sculptures, which formed the Wondabyne Sculpture Garden, were chiseled from huge blocks of fine Hawkesbury sandstone sourced from the quarry. They remained where they were created, on a narrow strip of land between the creek and the quarry near Wondabyne Station for many years. Then they were moved.

The Backstory to the Wondabyne Sculptures

In the summer of 1986/87, Lawrence Beck, a Sydney sculptor, curated the Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium, the first international Australian sculpture symposium. Beck also curated the Living Desert Symposium, one of the highlights of a visit to Broken Hill. 

The first Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium

Working in the heat of summer, six Australian and six international sculptors, one each from Bulgaria and France and two each from Nepal and Papua New Guinea, used only hammers and chisels to create their works of art. As there was no electricity, the sound of tap, tap, tapping echoed through the valley alongside the waters of Mullet Creek lapping the nearby shore.

At the end of each long day, the sculptors climbed to their camp above the quarry. Jude Pritchard, who volunteered as a kitchen hand at the camp, describes how over dinner “there were five of six different languages spoken” and, I reckon, a lot of hand signaling.

Today, you’ll be disappointed if you alight the train at Wondabyne Station with a view to seeing the sculptures. They were moved to Mt Penang Gardens in 2003, apparently “for safety reasons” and to make them more accessible to the public.

A chance Instagram post by a Brooklyn local alerted me to their presence in Mt Penang Gardens. I decided to pay them a visit.

Mt Penang Gardens

Leaving the M1 at the Gosford exit and following the signs, I turn left to Mt Penang Gardens. Before reaching the Waterfall Café, I pull into an empty car space overlooking a pond where a row of ducks trail each other across the mirror-like water.

A bridge over the pond forms the gateway to the gardens. The Wondabyne Sculptures are at the far end, and I amble along the smooth concrete path enjoying the winter sun on my back and the chirruping of birds in the trees. There’s hardly anyone around.

Strolling past a reflection of the obelisk in a long narrow pond, I’m excited to see a group of six or seven bottle trees. They remind me of the baobab trees of my homeland. These bottle trees, native to Queensland, have rough bark – different from the smooth-trunked boab trees in Western Australia.

The path winds around to a grassy area where the 12 Wondabyne sculptures stand proudly overlooking the gently rippling waters of the upper dam. A building behind the lawn hints at the place where the sculptures were created. It’s wrapped in plastic sheeting imprinted with a life-size image of Wondabyne Station.

Inspecting the Wondabyne Sculptures

Following a path, I take my time looking at the sculptures. There are cultural elements in the works by the Nepalese and Papua New Guinean artists. I peer through the hole in Cliff Axelsens’s Pietra Santa and marvel at how Vesco Totev created the ball of stone by hand in Circular Form.

The path circles back to the café via the Dragon Garden where oranges and greens of aloes and cacti contrast with the clear blue sky.

The Waterfall Café

From my table on the verandah of the Waterfall Café, I look out over the pond garden. Ducks paddle across the smooth water and frogs croak intermittently to the tune of water trickling over a low wall. I plan to find the second Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium after lunch.

The Second Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium

The second Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium was held a year after the first, in 1988. The works, again created by a mix of Australian and International sculptors, were crafted on site in nearby Mt Penang Parklands.

Mt Penang Parklands

It’s supposedly a 7-minute drive to the second Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium. Apparently, the sculptures are off McCabe Road, but I find myself driving in circles unable to find any signs telling me where to go.

In the end, I give up, return home and email a number of people hoping that someone can give me precise directions to the sculptures.  

Finding the Second Wondabyne Sculpture Symposium

Fortunately, someone in the local member’s office stumbled across the sculptures when on a weekend bike ride. She calls me and gives me detailed directions (see below).  

While a grassy lawn forms the stage for the sculptures of the first symposium, native bush surrounds the second group of 12 sculptures. The weathered sandstone artworks, covered with patches of lichen, seem quite at home in their natural setting.

It’s a pity that they’re so difficult to find.  

Useful information

• For Mt Penang Gardens, park your car before reaching the Waterfall Café, otherwise you’ll find yourself in a one-way loop and back on the Central Coast Highway
• There are accessible paths within the gardens and parking and a toilet for people with disabilities
• Get a map of the gardens from the café, download one using the QR code at the entrance or download one here
• The gardens are open from 9:30 to 4:30 (Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday and for select events).
• There are 2 BBQs, 3 picnic tables and open grassy picnic areas.  
• The Waterfall Café serves breakfast and lunch. It’s open Monday to Sunday from 8:30 to 4:30
• The sculptures of the second Wondabyne Symposium are off McCabe Road. Park opposite Options Disability Support and continue walking along the road with the support service on your right. Eventually you’ll find signage pointing to the sculptures which are in the bush over the road.