Burnside Heritage Mural Project
The Burnside Heritage Mural contains images that give us glimpses of the life of the area from the early inhabitants, through colonial times and expanding settlement to the present.
First Nations
The first image is of a Coast Salish fishing canoe in Selkirk water.
Salmon
The life cycle of the salmon which lived in Cecelia Creek is shown. The adult salmon are swimming upstream to span and the young are shown returning to the ocean.
A Pioneer Family
In 1852, John Work retired from the Hudson's Bay Company and bought 600 acres to the north of the fort and started the Hillside farm. He is pictured here, with his Métis wife, Josette Lagace. John (actually probably his wife) had ten children.
The British Navy
In the next grouping, the Works are shown with their daughter Cecelia, for whom the creek and ravine are named. There are no pictures of Cecelia before her marriage, so she is painted here in shadow. The navy lieutenant's hat shown with the grouping represents Lieutenant Richard Charles Mayne, who felt that the long hike from Esquimalt in his sea boots was well worth it for the few hours of pleasant conversation by the Work's warm fire. He was a frequent visitor.
