It is hard to imagine Warrnambool without the FJ’s Silver Ball on the skyline, but just a few years ago its future was in jeopardy.
Keeping the Ball in the air from First Ladies – Colleen Hughson on Vimeo.
Full of rust and a public safety concern, the ball was going to be taken down unless someone took responsibility for looking after it.
Back in 2014 when Tonia Wilcox started up the Save the Fletcher Jones Silver Ball & Gardens Facebook page, she had no way to knowing what a following and impact the page would have.
It was through this Facebook page that the Fletcher Jones Silver Ball & factory was bought and spared from a demolishment by neglect. It was also through this Facebook page that an outpouring of public love for the Silver Ball was expressed, along with stories of the FJ’s factory in its heyday.
Those stories, videos and photos shared on the Facebook page inspired the FJ’s community stories project and the development of a website to host those stories. It also inspired the creation of this 30 min documentary titled ‘Keeping the Ball in the air.’
In a world where social media gets so much bad press, the FJs campaign story is a great example of how social media can work effectively; how it can create social change and how it can connect people and create community.
There are plenty of people owed thanks to the telling of this story. As the filmmaker, I’d like to acknowledge that the film was made with crowd-sourced media. I’d like to thank all the people who made this film possible through contributing their photos, videos, newspaper clippings, artwork images and documentary memorabilia.
Nothing like a cool costume to catch your attention!
I worked with Lucy Cameron from Glenelg Hopkins CMA to produce this short Pozible Campaign video. And, it worked; the GHCMA raised the funds (and awareness) they needed.
All credit for the costume and script goes to the very creative Lucy Cameron who may have lost her calling as a comedy writer.
The money raised through the FundsforFish campaign goes towards returning some much needed fish habitat into the Merri River in Warrnambool. The river is devoid of snags and so the GHCMA plans to put fish-hotels into the river. These wooden structures provide homes for the perch, which are estuary fish. The perch use the wooden habitat to lay in wait for their food source to float by, and then they strike. Without wooden snags in the rivers, the perch have nowhere to hide. The hope is the numbers of estuary perch will increase with the structures and the overall health of the river will approve.