These are artist sketches with a difference - chalk on rusted VW body!
Opening Night Crowd
Hundreds of Lightning Ridge locals, media persons and people who have followed Stanley's journey along the way showed up to officially welcome Stanley - here's a photo from Stanley's perspective!
John and Stan and a couple of beaks...
Here's John and Stan (Stanley's namesake) with a few VW bonnets - or as they are to become, an emu beak!
Official Opening Night
Aunty Brenda McBride and Rhonda Ashby who performed the "Welcome to Country" in native tongue, and helped organise the Aborginal Boys Dance Group - thank you ladies.
Official Opening Night
Paul Weeks (Manager/Director of PW Concrete and Gravel) and John Murray (Stanley's co-creator) admiring their hard work.
Official Opening Night
The Waterford Family (and also the family who very generously allowed Stanley to be placd on their land) enjoying the opening night festivities.
Concreting Stanley's legs
It's no small feat taking on the responsibility of concreting an 18m high emu statue into it's forever home - however it was all in a days work for the boys at PW Concrete and Gravel, who not only donated the concrete for the project, but also their time, men, trucks and machinery. Thanks guys.
Breathing a sign of relief...
Even though we had complete and full faith in the team for the duration of the project, we must admit we did breath a sign of relief when Stanley was upright and tied down to earth!
Lifting Stanley into place
Every step along the way of this project there has been a degree of difficulty and moments where we wondered if we really could actually make it happen. Then there was this stage, the are-we-completely-crazy stage where actually get a crane and begin to hoist Stanley into place...
