Hubcaps to Creative Hubs

Dr Cristina Garduño Freeman is fascinated with the social significance of buildings, especially the dynamic that binds people and spaces. It may seem obvious to state that people shape the buildings they construct but it’s often neglected that these same structures also shape us; they outlast us and connect us across generations. Dr Garduño Freeman believes that how Geelong uses its old builds will also strongly design its future.

In 2016 Dr Cristina Garduño Freeman from the University of Melbourne and Dr Fiona Gray from Deakin University had a dream; to tell the stories of three Geelong industrial sites, then just beginning the journey to an amazing transformation; something we can more clearly see in 2024.

Together they set to work to build a team of likeminded people to create a series of films that showcased how a new creative and maker culture can connect the past with the present. They found that team in Jennifer Cromarty and Helen Kostiuk of Creative Geelong Inc. and documentary producer Nicholas Searle.

Over two years, the first spent crowd funding the finance and subsequently crafting the three films, the team managed to realise their dream. Sheepishly I must admit to missing their release at the time but thanks to an email from our President they have emerged to me after six years. That these films come across with such impact is testament to the academics’ determination and the accuracy of their observations and instincts.

The Hubcaps to Creative Hubs series unearths three relatively untold stories of Geelong’s history that had been facing the threat of obscurity and disrepair: Part 1 puts the lens of the Returned Soldiers and Serviceman’s Mills (RS&S) In Pakington Street, Part 2 has a focus on former Federal Woollen Mills in North Geelong and Part 3 the Fyansford Paper Mills.