IT’S fair to say, the Eureka Stockade has never seen a battle like this.
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All in the name of ‘The Art of Destruction’, dozens have taken part in - while probably not the most accurate recreation of the events of December 3, 1854 - a war between the miners and the troopers with a difference.
`Box Wars’ arrived in Ballarat on Sunday as part of the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA).
Intricate works which took a month to build and made entirely out of cardboard came crashing down in a battle for the ages.
Co-organiser and emcee Richard Keenan said it was all part of the fun of recreating Australian history.
“We’ve got a machine which cuts stuff, but the preparation is at least a good month,” he said.
“This was good fun, because there was plenty of chaos. Over the journey we’ve probably done a few bigger ones, but this suited where we are, the tower worked beautifully, the attention to detail was massive.
“We want people to look at it and go, it’s theatrical, there’s an attention to detail and it’s got a good feel to it.
“There’s a good laconic vibe up here, it was a good thing to play on, the `battle of the southern box’. We love it when there’s a theme of armies going at it.”
The most important thing is it’s all satire, we’ve done things on North Korea, the space race, it’s all good fun.”
Sisters Natasha, Katrina and Lisa Hill all took part in the event saying it was something they were all keen to have a go at.
“It’s something I’ve seen before and we really wanted to give it a go,” Natasha said.
“We’re expecting carnage and plenty of historical accuracy.”
‘Trooper’ Kris said it met his expectations that he expected to see lots of stuff destroyed.
“It was a little bit rougher than I was anticipating, but a lot of the big kids had fun,” he said. “Some people were definitely in there for the long haul.
“The costumes are amazing, the detail and everything, you can really see how much work they’ve put into the preparation.”
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