In the years since, the local population lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. Since the late 1940s, the community has diversified, with more than half of today’s local residents born overseas.
'Commute’ visualises the daily journeys of thousands of people employed at the factory during its 89-year history. The light installation activates twice per day, with ghost-like forms migrating towards the site at dawn and away from it at dusk.
Connected through time, we walk side by side with community members who came before us. Though times have changed, their movements mirror our own.
Light Artwork
Architectural Intervention
2025
“The past is never dead.
It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner.
The Arnott’s Biscuit Factory opened here in 1908 on sparsely populated Wangal country. The factory was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, employing 2,500 workers at its peak - the vast proportion of the local community.
Commute
Studio Chris Fox + Studio Mike Daly
Installation and lighting by Martin Bevz
Engineering by Teleo Design
Steel fabrication by AM Stainless Balustrades and Martin Bevz
Photography and Video by Josh Raymond.
Proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Strathfield Council