Late Fr Wally Stefanski

An important element of the proposal is the establishment of a Cultural Centre; and I thought that the planning of this building would be of interest to your Foundation. Your submission goes on to recognise the contribution of Father Wally [Stefañski]. As long time members of the Thredbo community, my wife and I would like to support your remembrance of father Wally in this way as we considered him a friend, and enjoyed his warm infectious personality and the contribution that he made.

Your involvement with the planning and naming of this Centre in it's early stage would be invaluable.

Kindest Regards,
Toni Sarri
For the owners,
PWT Investments PTY LTD

Our first reaction:

* Hej! This is great! (Ursula Lang)

* Congratulations and thanks for letting me know about the proposal of a Cultural Centre in Jindabyne and it is about time.I have a vivid memory when the late Tony Mulvihill former Senator for New South Wales and the Patron of Sir Pawel Edmund Strzelecki Monument Commttee said to me: when you start something good and important, don't give up! And took eight long years and if it had not been for the valuable help from Tony Mulvihill the Monument of Sir Paul Strzelecki would not be there in Jindabyne.

This was a fight of a lifetime and we all put our share: Polish and Australian efforts pushing aside all of the problems! Ernestyna is a tough fighter and I wish her all the best and all the luck in the world in her inspirations because it is also important. (Harry Hefka).

Vision of the future Alpine Village

From FKPP: We do hope that in the new Alpine Village some place would be allocated to the Strzelecki Museum as proposed in 2008. In December 2008 we have lodged two submissions. The first one by Ursula Lang, a professional town planner who offered to co-ordinate Polish Community submissions to Snowy River Shire Council as part of the consultation process for the Jindabyne Action. Here is the full text of the first one.

Rev. Fr Wally Stefanski (left), archbishop Francis Carroll of Canberra and Goulburn, Confirmation Day, Jindabyne 1993

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the process of developing Jindabyne's Action Plan.

I write this submission in the following capacity:
1. As a property owner in Jindabyne;
2. As a regular visitor;
3. As an events coordinator and Artistic Director of K'Ozzie Fest 09 and formerly Mound & Mt Kosciuszko Festival 07 and 08;
4. As a professional town planner, with experience in town centre improvement and urban renewal;
5. As Vice President of the Puls Polonii Cultural Foundation which represents the Polish Community.

I would like to focus the main part of my submission on suggestions for improvements to the Jindabyne Town Centre:

1.Jindabyne needs a Gateway

There is no real point at which Jindabyne Town Centre officially commences. A landscaped gateway welcoming the visitor is needed.

2.Improved connectivity in the Town Centre between main focal points

One of Jindabyne's main features is the Lake, and Banjo Paterson Park alongside. However, these main assets are divided off from the rest of the Town Centre and hence not taken advantage of, as they could be. The Lake and town Park need to be better-connected to the original shopping centre opposite, via safer and more distinctive pedestrian crossing facilities, and there should also be stronger connections to Nuggets Crossing Shopping Centre and the NPWS Visitors' Centre. The pedestrian walkways between these main components need to be significantly improved in terms of their directness and the quality of their pathways and associated streetscape (trees and street furniture).

3.Jindabyne Hotel

Council might consider entering into a partnership with the Jindabyne Hotel (ie a Planning Agreement under Section 93F of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act) to allow some redevelopment in return for the provision of some public facilities such as café, community facility and seating areas (perhaps a museum) adjacent to the Park, and looking over the Lake and special Park features such as the cenotaphs and Statue of the explorer Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki. The Agreement might finance an upgrade of pedestrian walkways through the Park to improve the relationship between the Park and the Civic Precinct (Memorial Hall).

The Landscape Plan for the Park needs to be reviewed, looking at the pattern of pathways and the positioning of steps in relation to the more defined pathways, and how visitors and residents generally use the Park, or would use the Park if facilities such as those mentioned were to be developed there. I believe that a café and deck redevelopment overlooking the Lake and the Park would be a highly attractive redevelopment, and go a long way in activating the Park, and taking advantage of its high value as a civic asset.

The above would assist significantly in enabling more events, including artistic performances, to be staged in the Park, and enabling local businesses to benefit as an outcome.

4.Statue of Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki

This 9m high bronze Statue on a large stone plinth, is a very prominent feature in Jindabyne and it needs to be well-maintained. The Statue was a bicentennial gift from the Polish Nation to the Jindabyne Community and is now 20 years old. The standard of maintenance of the Statue by the Council has been lacking, with the result that the condition of the Statue has been deteriorating. This situation is disappointing to the Polish Community which takes huge pride in the Statue, the history that it represents, and considers it to be worthy of being listed as an item of local heritage.

Fr Wally Stefanski with his flock at the Strzelecki Monument in Jindabyne

5.Civic Precinct

The contribution made by Memorial Hall as an iconic civic structure to the original shopping centre and to the town centre generally, needs to be strengthened, through the removal of the unattractive storage building erected in front of the hall (its main façade as one approaches the Town Centre), significant improvements in the external finishes of the hall building and the landscaping treatment around it, and possibly through some interpretative public art and/or paving.

The parking areas behind the original shopping centre need to be improved ie cleaned up and landscaped, as they are used by people walking through the centre. The uses on the western side of Thredbo Terrace such as the Police station, Medical Centre, CWA Hall etc, are important community uses and the fact that the shopping centre turns its backside to them is a poor arrangement. This needs to be rectified to bring the centre together as a well-functioning entity, and to facilitate and encourage a healthy civic respect for these uses.

6.Disability Access

Accessible paths of travel throughout the Town Centre, and as part of improvements undertaken as part of this process, need to be significantly upgraded to the highest possible standard to cater for all persons including of course people with disabilities, but also mothers with prams, and elderly visitors generally. The current standard of accessibility throughout the Town Centre is very poor.

Additional Recommendations (non physical)

It is suggested that the Council might like to embrace more fully, the multicultural history which is indisputably linked to Jindabyne and provide more support to events such as those which over the course of over 40 years have been initiated by the Polish community, and which may not have lost their continuity had they been better supported by the Council. These events, initiated by various organizations, but also the late but fondly-remembered local Catholic priest, Wally Stefanski, have the potential to make a significant contribution to the artistic and cultural experiences of the local community, and help to create harmony between locals and visitors, to the benefit of local businesses.

Should you wish to discuss any of the above ideas with me, please do not hesitate to contact me on my mobile number 0418 265 271.

Yours faithfully
Ursula Lang

Fr Wally Stefanski with pilgrims at the Vatican

The Cultural Foundation of Puls Polonii highly appreciates and values the invitation to participate in the process of developing Jindabyne's Action Plan.

The Foundation is organizing annual Jindabyne and Cooma Festivals which started as Mound & Mount Kosciuszko Festivals and developed recently into multicultural K’Ozzie Fests. The Festivals followed another event unique in the history of Mount Kosciuszko: Kosciuszko Music on Mount Kosciuszko on the 17th of February 2007. Involvement and contribution of the FKPP and of the Polish community to the region has been recently recognized in the official document on the Australian Alps on the National Heritage List.

We use this opportunity to call attention of the Town Planners and the Council to the public demand for appreciation of cultural and historical values of Jindabyne and of the adjacent Kosciuszko National Park. The old plans to build a Historical Museum of the Region, which we propose to name after the explorer Strzelecki who first climbed and named the Kosciuszko Mount, should be revived and effectively integrated into the Jindabyne Action Plan.

So far, the idea of the museum has rather beeen referred to only as a dream of the community. The prospective museum should be located near the Strzelecki monument and it should become a home for the famous Strzelecki map of Australia. This 7 m wide original produced by Strzelecki around 1845 is of great historical value . It is presently hosted by the British Geological Survey Library, recently in Nottinghamshire, in the UK. The map has been long forgotten and rediscovered only in 1972 by an Australian scientist, Professor D.F. Branagan of the Sydney University. The Polish community will be happy to donate also other items of historical value to the Museum.

(Photo attached to the submission: Ryszard and Les Strzelecki of Cooma photographing the Strzelecki’s map in Nottinghamshire.)

The prospective museum should be multicultural and should include both the Aboriginal history of the Monaro region and the history created by the constructors of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.

We believe that the town and the region should better benefit from the Festivals organized by the FKPP. There is a prospect for expanding the cultural part of the event by including musical, photographic and artistic components. They should attract both artists and spectators to Jindabyne in seasons without snow in the area. However the town should provide suitable location (open area) as well as a huge 10 x 10 m portable stage for performing concerts and artistic competitions within the Banjo Paterson Park, close to the Strzelecki Statue. It would be ideal to have it integrated with the proposed museum. The cultural activity of Jindabyne during no-snow period should provide an attractive component of the recreational aspect of the region, attracting more tourists both to town and to the Kosciuszko National Park.

The Strzelecki Statue is a big attraction; may we recall that it was a bicentennial gift of the Polish nation to Australians. The monument requires now some cleaning and restoration after serving Jindabyne over 20 years. This should not elude attention of the City Planners and we postulate that a regular maintenance of the statue be included into the Snowy River Shire Council budget.

(Photos attached: All photos of the Strzelecki Statue taken in November 2008.)

We also postulate to commemorate the contribution to the local community made by late Father Wally Stefanski. Rev. Fr Stefanski has had faithfully served the local community as well as tourists. He initiated all sorts of events, of which the Strzelecki Festivals in the 90ties were perhaps the most important. He is fondly remembered by the older residents of Jindabyne, Thredbo, Perisher, Dalgety. We suggest a creation of a walk or a bike track bearing his name as well as building a memorial plaque in the Jindabyne catholic church.

Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek – President
The Cultural Foundation of Puls Polonii
Mobile: 0414 353 307