Apollo Bay-sticker scene

 Almost three hours drive from Melbourne and you'll find yourself in a bustling little coastal town. Apollo Bay sits nestled in the Otway's with coast, heathland and some of the wettest Rainforest in Victoria. Regional towns that have a high influx of seasonal visitors brings a diversity of backgrounds. The surf and skate scene are often interwoven with graffiti. These towns often have greater emphasis on artistic and environmental scene that can give rise to these localised graffiti scenes in unexpected places. Just back up the road is the famous Bells Beach for surfing near Torquay. Apollo Bay is just one of a string of coastal hamlets situated along the Great Ocean Rd where international descend upon in droves. All trying catch a glimpse of the eroding and disappearing Twelve Apostles. Whilst there is a general absence of traditional aerosol graffiti the sticker scene is thriving in town. There's an acceptance that this fits in with the local streetscape of the town. 

Nearby Cool Temperate Rainforest of Triplet Falls

Newcastle Freights

Artwork from New South Wales third biggest city. Newcastle is a industrial town claiming the world's largest coal port. Abundant coal made prime position for BHP establishing steelworks that dominated the local economy until its closure in 1999. What's left, well an town that has a history of infrastructure embedded in the prosperity coal. As most countries in the world shift away from fossil fuels a diversified future comes with certainty. The transport of coal to Newcastle plays backdrop to the city as it dominates the city landscape with this bleak dystopian undercurrent. 

Trains have always been prized as the top spot to display a piece. Passenger trains are the ultimate steel canvas. Whatever runs on metro trains gets buffed and cleaned quick, whereas freight train pieces often run for years. 

 

Townsville Graffiti

In the last few years many regional towns have started to embrace graffiti and street art culture. Examples of these towns include Geelong & Benalla (Victoria), Lismore & Byron Bay (NSW) and Townsville (Queensland). Each town has a slightly different angle on how they promote urban art as a tourist attraction. 

Townsville city council has even gone as far to produce a street art brochure which provides a map and 16 different art pieces and separately includes illegal graffiti hot-spots.  

Townsville City Council has created a Street Art Activation Framework from which there is a solid philosophy, vision and purpose behind the art. 

The council unsuccessfully attempts to divide and separate the definition of street art and graffiti by simplification. It describes graffiti as illegal and street art legal. Whereas most artists, practitioners or vandals know some graffiti can be street art and most street art, if not all is not graffiti. So even the illegal works can be street art. 

Objectives 

(as stated and summarised to..)

• Cultural-Professional development, career opportunities, valuing public art, encouraging art diversity
• Economic-Increase activity in city, tourism, promoting diversity and innovation
• Recreational-Responding to youth needs, Building interest in community spaces
• Social-Encouraging collaboration, engaging with city youth, establishing civic pride
• Urban Planning-Urban transformation, community engagement, promoting public spaces

The council has mapped graffiti done through Townsville and has identified 6 priority activation sites based on their high levels of graffiti. 4 of which (where graffiti was aggregated) included the suggestion of Legal walls with Hosier Lane (Melbourne) and Morphett Bridge (Adelaide) used as successful examples.

It has also looked at mimicking the graffiti on trains with the "mobile canvas" concept to have the sides of council garbage trucks as a place to paint.

https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/community-support/arts-and-culture/street-art

Sugar Glider by Roa

More info of Belgium artist Roa-http://www.streetartbio.com/roa 

More photos-http://allthoseshapes.com/roa_graffiti_street-art/

Fb-https://www.facebook.com/ROAStreetArt/

 Faces of Townsville, by Ha ha

Ha ha bio-http://regantamanui.com/bio.html

 Run Collective

Fb-https://www.facebook.com/Run-Collective-188834624491543/

 Props to Kelso most prominent Far North Queensland graffiti writer

 Crocodile and Turtle by Roa

"Illegal" graffiti out of Townsville 

Most Southern Street Art in Australia

50 minutes South of Tasmania's capital is a little town called Geeveston. Driving from Hobart you be welcomed by street art covering what would otherwise be plain steel objects. Here they are brought to life by artists like Odius and Seven (from IKOE crew, Incredible Knights of Enamel https://www.facebook.com/theikoecrew/). 

This is a great example of how street art can improve the local amenity. Surprisingly progressive work in what is a traditionally conservative town built on logging. 

From the late 1800's to now forestry has been a significant part of the town. More recently from 1962-1988 the major employer was the APM mill. In 1988 the mill closed with mounting debt. Geeveston became a ghost town during the 1990's and lost almost a whole young working generation. The town began a revitalization program spear-headed by locals.

In 2001 than premier Paul Lennon (see photo below) counteracted "the lack of jobs" by opening a 4.5 million dollar Tahune Airwalk. This was a step away from traditional source of income forestry, however ironically the company running it was and still is the controversial state owned Forestry Tasmania (responsible authority for earmarking forests for logging). In 1997 a Regional Forest Agreement between the state and federal government enabled a Victorian company to invest in Southwood timber mill. Now owned by Malaysian Timber company Ta Ann (to see more information about the company visit https://taann.wordpress.com/).

Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon (from 2004-2008) wanted forestry, conservation and tourism to co-exist. Forestry in Tasmania has regularly received priority over conservation due to perceived short term benefits like employment. The nature of the industry is unsustainable and detrimental to the ecological integrity of Tasmanian landscapes. 

Source-http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2004/s1181101.htm

Street Art projects like this one are essential for small regional towns to keep moving and adapting away from an unsustainable forestry industry. The regional community in Benella, Victoria has seen the potential benefits from Street Art and now holds an Annual Festival celebrating aerosol art. http://www.benallastreetart.com.au/

Related Links

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/go-fund-me-drysdale-group-street-art-project-john-drysdale

https://taswegian57.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/the-artist/

'

Political Satire in Hobart of former Tasmanian Premier. For more info on Paul Lennon and allegations of corruption follow the link..

http://www.tasmaniantimes.com.au/index.php/article/lennon-the-claims-a-wrap 

Inglewood Graffiti Silo's

There's nothing better than finding regional graffiti, especially the rare good type quality. About 5 km out of Inglewood is these old grain silos next to the train line at Kurting. These silo's are on route between the Melbourne to Adelaide Calder Hwy. Here you will find tags and throw-ups adorning the walls facing the hwy. Whiz, Nost, and Duke are all well known writers in Melbourne.

Western Hwy

Makatron

http://makatron.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MikeMakatronArt/