NSPNR partnered with the Bush Fire Brigade to create two installations for the Horsepower Highway to represent our protection and preservation of local natural resources and the environment of the biodiverse Stirling Range National Park and surrounds.
The Horsepower Highway is a series of installations that showcase rural life in our district. The trail features a series of vintage tractors, each with a name and a theme for visitors to follow as they head into the Stirling Range National Park. The Horsepower Highway is fast becoming an attraction in our region.
We wanted to showcase our group's vital contribution to life here and educate the community and visitors about the importance of volunteering and Natural Resource Management (NRM) in our region.
The Horsepower Highway is now becoming a very important community asset which is bringing economic benefit with the travellers passing through. Our community as a whole has invested time and resources into the planning, partnerships, execution and maintenance of this project, and recently was named in the top five finalist for the Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities "Community Action" section.
Palli and Atte
A Chamberlain tractor was restored and painted green. 'Palli' is two tones of green, lighter at the top, darker at the bott om, with blue wheels and a blue wavy stripe going through the middle to represent the Pallinup River.
The sculpture depicts a giant yellow Banksia attenuata which is local to our area and is used in our revegetation activities. The sculpture includes recycled materials to reflect our sustainability values.
We held a competition on over social media to get the local community involved and asked for their best name suggestions. We later held a voting poll to see what the most popular name was for both our tractor and sculpture.'Palli', short for The Pallinup Landcare Centre Tractor, which is the name of the North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources office located in Borden, WA. Palli was the top voted name for our tractor and as the name Atte was so popular too we decided the sculpture deserved its own name too! 'Atte' is short for Banksia attenuata, which is a native species endemic to our region and used in our revegetation projects, and was the inspiration for Ollie Anderson's sculpture.
Atte (left) and Palli (right)
Bush Fire Brigade tractor 'Blaze'
The tractor is a tribute to the district's volunteer fi re fi ghters/brigade, we don't have fi re stations in our communities and the work of our volunteers is integral to saving our land, houses, stock and wildlife (etc) from fire. The concept of this tractor came after the devastating bushfires of 2019 that wiped out 40,000ha of bushland in the Stirling Ranges National Park. 'Blaze' is inspired by a vintage fire truck!
Blaze
Find out more about the Horsepower Highway
April 2022 - May 2023
This project was funded through FRRR 'Strengthening Communities' grant.