An art installation that explores the history of Childers’ Palace Hotel has been refreshed with a new interpretative audio guide and conservation treatment.
The Palace Hotel Commemorative Trail was devised by artist Sam Di Mauro and was installed into the fabric of the building when it was rebuilt following the devasting fire of 23 June 2000.
It is comprised of ten Perspex boxes with images and text that referenced the building’s long history.
Sam also created the Palace Backpackers Memorial honouring the 15 lives lost in fire, which remains a centrepiece of Childers Arts Space within the Palace Hotel building.
He said the aim of the commemorative installation was to tell the broader story of the building and its importance to the town.
“The concept that I had made for the memorial included some reference to the Palace Hotel over the past 100 years, and when the concept was presented to the parents, they thought that it would be better not to have that in the memorial, but to have it as a separate component,” Sam said.
“We then looked at the possibility of translating the history of the Palace in a different way and try to make it localised to the different parts of the hotel.
“The idea then came that we would make a Perspex box, and into that box we would place references to how that space was used or to how that activity contributed to the life of the Palace Hotel.
“We got the builder to create some niches in different rooms and different locations in the hotel, because I wanted the story and the information that had been gathered about that space [to] feel as though it was part of that space and growing out of that space.”
To create the displays, Sam interviewed long-term Childers residents, scoured records and historical society archives, and, as his grandparents lived in the region for many years, even delved into his own family’s story.
Bundaberg Regional Council has now launched an audio guide that features Sam discussing the stories told in the boxes.
“I’m really pleased that [Council’s Galleries team] have taken on this responsibility to give [the boxes] a bit more presence in the Palace Hotel,” Sam said.
“They are about the people and the people’s history of that building as it was, and that story needs to be told, to add value to the investment that was made to rebuild the building.
“And I’ve always felt very strongly about them, as I have about the memorial as well, of course.
“In referencing the community, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that these people in Childers, this little town in the middle of nowhere, had been so good to the survivors and helping them to heal from that experience.”
The Commemorative Trail within Childers Arts Space begins in the Palace Hotel portico and foyer, leading visitors throughout the building which once held a bar and a ladies’ drawing room and was a popular spot for wedding photos.
Descriptive labels accompany each niche and a QR code leads visitors to an audio recording of Sam discussing each display.
The trail is housed within the Palace Hotel and Childers Art Space, open weekdays from 9 am to 4 pm and weekends from 9 am to 1 pm.
