PEG IS 40!: place, community, identity, memory and myth in the Dandenong Ranges

Abstract

PEG IS 40! investigates memory, myth and storytelling as well as personal and communal identity with a sense of place, focusing on a particular site, that of the PEG IS 40! inscription on the train bridge in Upper Femtree Gully above Burwood Highway. The text there has not been weathered away, further graffiti has not overwritten it, and it has not been removed by council. In this time of rapid cultural transformation and global pressures, Peg is still and has always been 40. There is a certain myth surrounding Peg. Peg is anonymous; Peg is immortal and timeless, and there is a shared understanding of place surrounding PEG IS 40! that belongs to the community. The project methodology involved collecting stories from surrounding community members in an effort to record and archive these local people's experiences and understandings, stimulated from a reflection of this place, PEG IS 40! This is combined with my own very personal narratives, as well as fabricated myths, as a response to this same place. Mediums explored for this thesis include aural soundscape, embroidered text works, small-scale silver souvenir objects, organic matter and sculptural objects. All of these mediums adopt narrative and storytelling in an effort to document, recall, preserve or evoke memory of place.