About the artwork
“The Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) is a locally occurring threatened species. This sculpture commemorates hollow-dependent wildlife, plus the habitat loss that followed the February 2024 super storm and clean-up.”
The Powerful Owl is listed as a vulnerable species under Victoria’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. It is a large bird that requires large hollows to nest and successfully raise chicks – the kind of hollows that take over 100 years to form, and so only exist in old trees. When these trees die, they can continue to stand and to provide habitat for years – decades even. But stags eventually fall, and with the progressive loss of large hollows, the Powerful Owl needs new generations of hollow-bearing trees surviving and maturing to a point where they can provide a continuation of nesting habitat. Maintenance of habitat diversity today – hollows of all sizes and ages – is critical for the species survival into the future.
The February 2024 storm had devastating effects on many locals. It also brought considerable habitat loss – not only during the storm itself, but during the following clean-up. We need to make our public and private spaces safe in the wake of such events, but we can also be mindful of preserving as much habitat diversity as is safely possible. We hope that the Powerful Owl sculpture calls to us all to bear this in mind, whenever we find ourselves considering and determining the fate of every hollow-bearing tree and stag; every pocket of natural habitat.
The cypress used for this sculpture was recovered from storm windthrow by Jess Healey and carved by local chainsaw sculptor, Paul Stafford. The work was commissioned by Mirboo Country Development Inc.’s Winterfest Working Group and funded by the Community Bank Mirboo North & District.
The Powerful Owl sculpture is perched between the old train station and the slide in Baromi Park, Mirboo North.
