Volunteers have spent weeks carefully preserving thousands of floral tributes from the Bondi Beach memorial at Bondi Pavilion, ensuring the community’s response to December’s terror attack lives on through a permanent commemorative artwork.
The Sydney Jewish Museum commissioned the preservation work after Waverley removed the temporary memorial, with senior curator Shannon Biederman leading the effort to save as much as possible.
The team had just days before Christmas to arrange trucks, find storage that would accept perishable items and secure flower drying solutions—a logistical challenge made more meaningful by what the tributes represent.
More Than Just Flowers
Beyond the thousands of bouquets, the memorial included hand-painted stones, teddies, cards and deeply personal items like a pair of shoes left by 10-year-old Matilda’s family.
Biederman connects to that loss on a personal level. She had tickets to the December 14 Chanukah by the Sea event and takes her kids every year, but changed plans at the last minute. Her daughter is also 10.
The curator has spent more than 20 years working with Holocaust survivors on their testimonies, learning to compartmentalise when the work becomes overwhelming. Sometimes that’s the only way to keep going.
Transforming Tributes Into Art
On Christmas Eve, volunteers gathered at a rented storage facility to sort through the flowers, hanging them on fencing to help with drying. Rain fell as they worked, a moment Biederman found strangely fitting.
Melbourne artist Nina Sanadze, already working with the museum on another exhibition when the attack happened, now leads the artistic transformation. She’s ironing dried petals, pressing flowers by species and colour, and enclosing some in silicone.
Even the decayed portions won’t go to waste—the team plans to turn them into compost for seating at the museum.
Sanadze says the project won’t result in a single artwork but many different pieces, each reflecting how strongly the flowers convey grief.
The work takes an emotional toll. Sanadze copes by burying herself in the project while drawing strength from her community. For her, art repairs the world by turning decay into messages of love and hope.
A Story of Unity
Biederman found reading the handwritten messages particularly difficult. She had to stop when the words became too upsetting.
She also knew Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the 15 victims, and remembers him as the most beautiful person.
The Sydney Jewish Museum remains closed for redevelopment, with exhibitions set to reopen in late 2026. The team continues refining their plans for how the commemorative artwork will take shape within that space.
Biederman sees the preserved tributes as evidence of something positive emerging from tragedy—a unity story told through tokens of love and support when the Jewish community needed it most.
The preservation work for the Bondi Beach memorial flowers continues more than a month after the attack, with grief still fresh for many in the community.
Published 20-Jan-2026
