Take this walking tour to be amazed at the large-scale artworks created in and around Mildura’s City Heart.

Spanning from the mid-1940s to now, various murals by local and visiting artists have popped up around the CBD so make sure you look up and around - you may be surprised at what you find.

Your day at a glance Matthews and McCreath Plumbing (129 Pine Avenue, Mildura) Cottee’s (125 Pine Avenue, Mildura) Lemons + Oranges (58 Pine Avenue, Mildura) The Streets of Your Town (Healy Walk, 99-101 Lime Avenue, Mildura) Mildura (85 Langtree Avenue, Mildura) Dulux (Bowrings Lane 100A Langtree Avenue, Mildura) Bowrings Lane (Tschirpig Lane, Mildura) Italian (Lintons Lane, Mildura) Home Grown (Gallagher's Lane, Mildura) Feels Like 41 (Shillidays Lane, 143 Eighth Street, Mildura) Antisocial (Shillidays Lane, 143 Eighth Street, Mildura) Work, Rest and Play (Shillidays Lane, 141 Eighth Street, Mildura) ETA / Velvet (149 Eighth Street, Mildura) Fine & Rare (Honey Bar Wall, Shillidays Lane, Mildura)

First stop is one of the most historic pieces in the CBD, Matthews and McCreath Plumbing (129 Pine Avenue, Mildura). Records show the building was built in 1940, while the plumbing business was in operation in 1946. Now a residential home, the historic signwriting has been preserved on the side of the building.

Just a few metres along is the iconic Cottee’s mural (125 Pine Avenue, Mildura), on the side of the former cordial factory. Just a couple of years after he began in the signwriting trade in 1976, Merbein-based signwriter Terry ‘Moose’ McGowan lent his brush to the now historic building. His free-hand brushwork has stood the test of the time and has become a Mildura landmark, surprising even the artist himself. The building has now been developed into an office space also housing a youth service, but the facade remains, despite some fading and rust damage in recent years.

Insider Tips

• Make sure your phone is charged so you don’t miss an iconic shot.
• Get your retail fix at the many Mildura City Heart stores as you follow the mural trail.
• Take a mural home with you, with postcards and posters available for purchase from the Mildura Visitor Information Centre and the Mildura City Heart office.
• Some murals might be hard to find. If you’re lost, ask a friendly local or pop into the Mildura City Heart office for directions.

Next on the tour is another beautiful, preserved sign which showcases the heart and soul of Mildura - our citrus industry, Lemons + Oranges (58 Pine Avenue, Mildura). Unlike other historic advertising artworks, the ghost signs which surround the former Sunraysia Citrus Board building are truly unique to Mildura. Painted in the mid-1980s, the large billboard-style pieces spruik the fruit the Sunraysia region is best known for. LeGassick Signs, founded by the late Phil LeGassick, designed the murals which were painted free-hand using traditional signwriting techniques in just a few days. Phil created the letterwork and artwork on the orange side, while fellow signwriter Kevin Burke completed the letterwork and artistic touches of fruit on the lemon side.

It’s time to take a stroll to Healy Walk where you’ll discover one of our city’s most recent murals, The Streets of Your Town (Healy Walk, Mildura). Situated between Commonwealth Bank and CGVT Employment on Lime Avenue, this artistic display pays homage to Mildura’s most prominent buildings, streets and laneways, and unique landscapes. Based on lino prints created by King Valley artist Anita Laurence, the local community picked up brushes and helped bring this mural to life.

Onto perhaps the most iconic of our murals, Mildura (85 Langtree Avenue, Mildura). One of the more recent additions, this amazing piece was designed by Ballarat-based Travis Price who is driven to design works that connect to a site’s history and community. For this piece, he took inspiration from 1950s tourism marketing and early fruit packaging. Merbein signwriter Terry ‘Moose’ McGowan took the lead on the paintbrush with help from Mildura City Heart’s Danielle Hobbs and Cultivator Inc’s Sophie Cook. Price is no stranger to Mildura, having previously made his mark on the signwriting landscape of the city when he designed Antisocial’s 10-year anniversary artwork. This is the first of a series of murals made possible through the Federal Government’s Stronger Communities funding.

The next stop takes you back in time, the Dulux (Bowrings Lane, 100A Langtree Avenue, Mildura) is on a building that was once the site of a paint store, with frontage onto Langtree Avenue and backing onto Bowrings Lane. Evidence of its history can be seen from Bowrings Lane, where an old sign sits high above the staff carpark with the words “Super-enamel. There’s a Dulux paint for every purpose” in plain sight. This advertisement has been layered on top of another sign, older still, that could point to the building’s prior use. It’s understood the building was also once a glass shop and, at another time, undertakers.

Discover more - get a taste of our region's street art

Cyclist Mural

(Corner of Olive Avenue & Eighth Street, Mildura)

This colourful scene painted by local artist Terry “Moose” McGowan highlights the landscape you see as you make your way through Merbein to Mildura, with the highway lined with luscious vines and palms.

Alphabet Art Trail

(Mildura Arts Centre (MAC) & Mildura Regional Development (MRD))

Check out local artist Chris Fraser’s ongoing alphabet mural project which aims to promote colour and happiness in the Mildura region. You can find Chris’ creations at the MAC (Rear carpark on Chaffey Avenue/Railway Reserve) and MRD (Coles & First Choice carparks).

Mildura Holden Motor Museum Mural

(58 West Road, Buronga NSW)

Another Terry “Moose” McGowan masterpiece, this recent mural features an iconic Sandman panel van.

The River Runs Through

Corner of Calder Highway & Game Street, Merbein VIC

Catch a glimpseof this dynamic art installation which explores the rich narrative of the water ways found at the Merbein Common.

Barclay Square Water Tower

Barclay Square, Red Cliffs VIC

Nothing brings a community together like local art. Explore the history of Red Cliffs through this mural created by students from Red Cliffs Secondary College.

Next up is another recently completed piece, Bowrings Lane (Tschirpig Lane, Mildura). Each element of this large-scale mural in Bowrings Lane tells a story of Mildura’s history. Painted onto the side of Bowrings Building, the mural was designed by Travis Price and features a portrait of Bill Bowring, ‘Sunraysed’ fruit branding, and a nod to the namesake of the neighbouring Tschirpig Lane, baker Ray Tschirpig. Among the vibrant work is a scattering of mint leaves, a throwback to the days when the Valencia Room in Bowrings Building was serving its famous mint juleps. The mural was painted over two-and-a-half days with Price leading a band of volunteers, including SuniTAFE, VCAL and La Trobe University students as well as Cultivator Inc members. The mural is best viewed from the intersection of Bowrings and Tschirpig Lanes.

Just a short distance away, Sicilian street artist Alessandro Gandolfo adorned the wall of the former Mildura City Heart office with colour in 2016, creating Italian (Shillidays Lane, Mildura). The visiting Italian artist’s piece centres on multiculturalism, with a particular focus on the Italian influence in Australian culture. In September of the same year, the large artwork was painted over by a new tenant to the building, but thanks to the use of a paint protector over the original piece, a team was able to remove the plain black paint to again reveal the vibrant image underneath. If you continue along Lintons Lane you will see a number of other street art pieces, many of which were included in the Back Lane Festival (a part of the Mildura Wentworth Arts Festival). A second, smaller mural by Gandolfo can be found in Shillidays Lane.

Continue your walk on Lintons Lane to view a new addition to the CBD’s collection of murals, Home Grown (Gallagher’s Lane, Mildura). Created by Liv McCarten in collaboration with Cultivator Inc, Arts Mildura and Mildura Rural City Council Youth Engagement Services, the mural takes us on an aerial journey across the patchwork of horticultural, viticultural and agricultural landscapes that are the fabric of our ‘food bowl’ economy in Sunraysia. Abstracted to take the shape of the flowing Murray River that sustains these plantings, McCarten’s bright and lively work references the colours of the vine leaves and orange orchards, bunches of grapes and pink salt, citrus and landscapes that speak of our region.

As you travel along Eighth Street, you’ll be greeted by a collaboration between signwriter Terry ‘Moose’ McGowan and visiting artist Wendy Murray, Feels Like 41 (Shillidays Lane, 143 Eighth Street, Mildura). The piece, painted during Murray’s residency with The Art Vault in 2016, sits beside a painting marking Antisocial Collective’s 10th year in business. The pair designed the artwork, featuring the words ‘Feels like 41’ and — without the use of templates or stencils — freehanded the piece after being given free reign by business owner, Aaron Cumming.

At the same location, Antisocial (Shillidays Lane, 143 Eighth Street, Mildura) was created to celebrate the Antisocial Collective’s 10th year in business and is the work of prolific signwriter Terry ‘Moose’ McGowan. A nod to the view from the shopfront window, it features Mildura’s landmark T&G building, along with palm trees, which stand at the centre of one of the CBD roundabouts. The logo, designed by Travis Price, was used as a print on one of the skate shop’s T-shirts, and reproduced onto the wall in Shillidays Lane in late 2017. McGowan used the art technique ‘pouncing’ to transfer the image from paper to the wall. The technique uses a tool to perforate the artist’s paper with a series of holes through which charcoal is pushed through to create an outline for painting.

Turn around to see Mildura’s newest mural which explores and celebrates everything “Work, Rest and Play” (Shillidays Lane, 141 Eighth Street, Mildura) in the CBD. Be amazed by a bold splash of colour by Scottish artist Baxter, who worked alongside the local Mildura community to bring his vision to life. The large mural highlights the ways the community interacts with Mildura City Heart in a blended abstract-figurative style. The Shillidays Lane piece adds to other new and existing street art, murals and ghost signs, which all highlight different aspects of the precinct, its history and culture.

Go exploring - our region's silo art scene will surprise you

GrainCorp Walpeup Silo 

Only a 25-minute drive from Ouyen, catch a glimpse of the GrainCorp Walpeup Silo. Painted by internationally renowned artist Julian Clavijo, the silo tells the story of Walpeup local, 16-year-old Harold Thomas Bell (Wickham), who assumed a false identity and enlisted into the Australian Army in 1917. Accepted into the 4th Light Horse regiment, Harold devastatingly lost his life in the attack of Beersheba (Gaza).

Mallee Highway, Walpeup VIC.

 

Werrimull Mobile Silos

The Werrimull Mobile Silos are the most recent addition to our region’s silo art, painted by Jimmy Dvate and Justin Fennelseed. Featuring beautiful depictions of local flora and fauna, the artwork fosters a sense of connection and appreciation for our region’s unique biodiversity among both locals and visitors.

Red Cliffs-Meringur Road, Werrimull VIC.

Walk on to view one of Mildura’s most recently uncovered ghost signs, ETA / Velvet (149 Eighth Street, Mildura). Renovations to the building in 2016 exposed two layered signs, one for ETA peanut butter, and the other, an older Velvet Soap advertisement. The occupier at the time had intended to strip back the layers of paint to reveal an exposed brick wall, but instead uncovered a piece of Mildura early history. The building is known as the Nash Building, named for G.A. Nash, the building’s original occupier. The building was completed in 1917, however the Nash Bakery and Grocery business dates back to 1888. For many years it was the base for a carpet retailer, before again becoming a bakery (Baker’s Delight), and later a restaurant. Mildura historians believe the ETA sign was painted in the 1950s, while the Velvet sign predates that. The wall has been the canvas for several signwriters, including Kevin Billington, who painted the entire wall when the carpet store opened.

We’ve saved Mildura newest mural for last. Only a short walk to Honey Bar & Rooftop, you will find Fine & Rare (Shillidays Lane, Mildura) blooming to life on the wall. The mural, painted by Canadian Ema Gardner, also known by her artist name Adore, showcases the Mallee ecosystem and actively contributes to its preservation. Admire the bright and vibrant colours of the regent parrot, emu-wren, blue-faced honeyeater, quandongs, pig faces, gum nuts, and native liquorice you see in front of you. Mindful of the environmental impact, the artist used Graphenstone paint to create the mural, a first for Mildura.

Finish up your tour with a drink, snack or meal at the Corporate Moose (32-34 Langtree Avenue, Mildura). Pull up a seat in front of a mural paying tribute to the iconic Muscle Beach to compare photos and favourites.

More information: Mildura Visitor Information Centre, 180-190 Deakin Avenue, Mildura. T: 03 5018 8380.