Karmai (pron. Car-My) came about literally from a dream. Sometime in 1974 I had a vivid dream about a giant pink worm that took over the whole town of Korumburra (sounds more like a nightmare!) The ‘Preface’ and ‘Foreword’ from the best selling book has been added to this gallery to give a more detailed background – take the time to read it. The whole project came to fruition with a shire wide effort from most of the primary schools and later from several secondary schools in the old Shire of Korumburra. Initially it was focused on promoting Coal Creek Historical Village and also the value of Art in Education which was (and still is) treated as a ‘cinderella’ subject in most schools. It did draw heavily on a locally occurring natural phenomena – ‘Megascolides Australis’ - The Giant South Gippsland Earthworm that grows to 2 to 3 metres in length.
It took approximately 3 months to build ‘The worm’ which originally rounded out at about 148 feet in length or just a bit over 45 metres! This made it 16 feet longer than the Bendigo ‘Chinese Dragon’ and because the head was mounted on 2 golf buggy wheels it was for a time the longest parade float in the world! I can still remember American tourists seeking us out to photograph it etc. One even wanted to take it to the ‘Rose Bowl’. We should have let him – after all he was a millionaire. It was a very successful motivator for the whole region and would still be to this day if wiser heads had prevailed. However, for at least 12 years or more it did galvanise whole communities and gave them wide exposure both nationally and internationally through the ‘Karmai Festival’ that was held every year for 10 days in March approx. one week after Melbourne’s Moomba Festival. The Street procession that was held at the end of each years festival grew to such a degree that 1981/82 people came by the thousands including tourists from overseas etc. to see it. For a town of less than 4000 to take on the Moomba Parade at its own ‘game’ and upstage it was a testament to the efforts of this remarkable community.
A generation of school children, would have at some time, been outside or underneath a ‘Karmai’ creation. Every year a new float would be designed and built using skills from a small group of adults but with the assistance of thousands of school children – it was probably slave labour but I never heard any complaints. We did not have access to the mega-budgets that were visible in some of the large business’ that backed the Moomba Parade. In 1978 Karmai won it’s first major award at Moomba on a budget of approx. $1400 AUD whilst the Gas&Fuel Corporation would spend in excess of $65,000 and then pay the actors to man it! Myers would do the same. Also more importantly the Moomba parade was televised by ALL the major TV stations and we figured that 5 minutes exposure in front of the cameras was worth about $50,000 in advertising. You can imagine the bonus in 1980 when we were invited to have 3 floats in the procession!
All of these floats had to be constructed so that they were transportable across hundreds of kilometres, and with that came the need for durability. Also ‘convoys’ of buses had to get the children to Melbourne to activate, pull and haul the monstrous creations. Each child was in ‘uniform’ and for each float and each festival a new logo was designed which would be on a T shirt along with the sponsorship details. Of course all of these ‘floats’ – I think of them now as giant moving and articulated ‘Sculptures’ would have to be lodged for approval by the authorities via full working plans and a scale model that was expected. Eventually it is my hope that I can include all the full working plans and images of the Scale models into this Gallery as they do represent art forms in themselves. Also when (and ‘if’) the story of this challenging and mad mad time is allowed to be told in it’s entirety it will show the artistic and physical discipline that was demanded to mount such a formidable project each year. Also each year a King and Queen of Karmai would be elected and that gave us the opportunity to work with people ranging from Rolf Harris, Darryl Somers to the late Graham ‘Shirl’ Strahan and his famous ‘Neighbourhood’. Each year the appointed person would summon the giant worm from it’s slumber in the Subway situated in the middle of Korumburra’s main street. An image of the ‘rolled parchment signed by all the ‘Kings’ that used it will be added to this gallery in time.
It is my earnest hope that this gallery can serve as a window in time when we lived in a happier and less threatening age. I hope also to be adding pictures of the major awards and trophies that these giant creations received when they become available.
It’s was never my original intention to ever ‘ win’ anything but to include children and convince the Education masters of the day that activities such as this were educationally viable and worthwhile, for at the time of their construction they certainly had their detractors and critics.
I view these creations now as an integral part of my artistic legacy and as such they form a valid part of my body of work – from the simplest diagram of a 25 feet tall Lyrebird’s feather to a two ton Grasshopper – from the 45 feet wingspan of a Blowfly to the fiery tongue of flame that shot from a 40 foot long Dragonfly! But on balance?
It was the worst of times and the best of times!
*’Karmai’© and all of it’s associated logos ,float names, diagrams, cartoons, plans, blueprints are copyright