Waroona Sofa

By Jack Dwyer

In the centre of town you will find Waroona’s concrete sofa which was once covered by a patchwork quilt. About 20 local people created pieces portraying something important about their lives in Waroona to make the sofa. Due to deterioration of the fibreglass coating it was necessary to refurbish the sofa in 2008 by stripping back the fibreglass and removing the quilt pieces.

The sofa was part of a Sofa Trail that was constructed about ten years ago, there are ten painted sofas located in different towns including Fremantle, Kwinana, Rockingham, Mandurah, Pinjarra, Dwellingup, Yarloop, Harvey and Bunbury. Many of them have been largely forgotten. Some have suffered ravages over the time but the sofa in Waroona has been very well maintained.

The concrete sofa weighs a total of 2.4 tonnes. Each piece of concrete slab weighing 300 kg. If you want more information you can go to Mrs Goldsworthy at the Waroona visitors centre.

The original design covering the sofa was removed taking 6 people to complete the job. The new-look sofa has been re- painted by local artist Lorraine Bawden with scenes showing 'old' Waroona, local flora and fauna, and places of interest.