Returned home: More than 50 clay tiles created by local school children were chiselled out and returned to families last week.
Shepparton Rotary Club members helped return about 50 clay tiles from Shepparton’s Maude St Mall to families last week as the redevelopment continues.
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The clay tiles were installed around the mall playground and planter boxes as part of a local schools art project in 1994.
The redevelopment will see a shared one-way traffic zone installed from Fryers St to High St, including parallel parking on both sides, more trees and a new soft fall terrain playground.
Rotary president David Shipston said a Facebook call out was posted asking for people to get in contact if they would like certain clay tiles removed before the current playground was demolished.
“There were some very grateful recipients,” he said.
“And the significance of those tiles was that some of those children (that made the tiles) have since passed away.”
Mr Shipston said the club managed to chisel 50 to 60 tiles from the walls of the playground, but there were many others they weren’t able to remove.
Difficult job: Rotarians did their best to rescue as many tiles as possible from the concrete with as little damage as possible.
“It turned out the tiles were stuck in the concrete, so it was quite difficult,” he said.
Mr Shipston said it was one of the first projects since the beginning of the pandemic where Rotary members had been able to do some hands-on work.
“Generally we fundraise and donate money to projects,” he said.
“To do some actual community work was great.”
The Maude St Mall redevelopment is in stage two, which is set to be completed in July this year.
Shade structures, lighting, street furniture, tree cells and new paving and concrete will be installed over the next few months.
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