After over three years of conversations, planning, information gathering we, together with Historic England cut the first letter ‘A’ on 18th May 2018. A very exciting day indeed!
It had been decided by Historic England that we should cut the letters for AUSTRALIA at 50cm wide and the outline at 90cm. Our methodology was to cut out the turf at approximately 6 inches deep, place it to the side and then fill with a supply of chalk we had been given by a local landowner from the quarry at the bottom of the hill. We were very excited to see the results of our work from the A30, but it looked so small and was completely lost in the enormity of the landscape – a little disappointing, however it served as a good incentive to carry on.
Working picnics continued throughout the summer of 2018, we certainly improved in our technique and became more efficient in our work. An early photograph from the air kindly sent to us, made us change our habit of throwing loose soil to the side of the outline. As you can see from the image below, what we thought looked like loose soil, did have a high chalk content and looked really messy from the air, so we changed tack and made sure that only the turf was placed to the side of the cuts, all loose soil was gathered up and removed.
We were helped by numerous volunteers during the summer of 2018, so a big thank you to everyone who came along!
By the end of summer 2018, we were nearly there. It had always been our intention to finish in time for the end of the First World War centenary, so our last working day was planned for 9th October. The weather was glorious and with the help of a large group of volunteers and serving members of the RAF from Boscombe Down, we achieved our goal. To complete the outline was an incredible experience!
Here is the moment of completion after a huge amount of hard but rewarding work!
The Map of Australia 