Park supports plans for memorial

Meelup Regional Park management committee has indicated its support for a proposal to erect a memorial sculpture for Kyle Burden at Bunker Bay.

Mr Burden was fatally attacked by a white shark on September 4 last year while body boarding at Boneyards surf break.

A simple monument consisting of a surfboard and some personal effects was erected shortly after the attack and remains in place.

The Burden family has commissioned Simon James, a Margaret River artist, to produce the sculpture which would include a steel representation of a person surfing on a bodyboard along a hollow breaking wave to be mounted upon a rock, also fashioned from galvanised steel.

It is proposed the installation would be no higher than 1.5m and coloured to blend into the environment.

The structure would also have a particular emphasis on conservation of the marine environment with an inscription of a quotation.

Meelup Regional Park officers said in the report the sculpture would not only serve a memorial purpose but would be a piece of artwork in its own right and said the physical impact of the site would be minimal.

The proposal will now have to receive planning approval from the City of Busselton.