Art & Culture
BIG
IS BEAUTIFUL
It’s made headlines around the world - a huge mural painted on a dam in the heart of the BunGeo. Monique Ceccato finds out more about this extraordinary achievement.
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FOUND | Issue 07
They said painting a giant mural on a dam wall couldn’t be done, but Travis Robinson wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I was contacted by the Premier and Cabinet and was advised that somebody had had this great idea of putting a mural on the Wellington Dam. A couple of people had been contacted in Perth and they had said no, so they asked me to have a crack at it,” said Travis, who couldn’t see why, with the right team behind him, the mural shouldn't become a reality. “I did an initial report with budgets and the like, it was presented and agreed to, and then they asked me to be the project director of the whole thing.” At 34m high and 367m wide, painting a mural on the vertically and horizontallycurved Wellington Dam wall
ATTENTION GRABBER The Wellington Dam mural, created by Gural van Helton took over 12 months to complete in a technically challenging project.
was no mean feat. It took just over 12 months, cost just under $1.5 million, and the artistic chops of Brisbane muralist, Guido van Helton, to pull the centrepiece of Collie’s mural trail together. “Guido is a genius,” said Travis, “and, you know, he was probably the perfect person for the job.” The project went out to tender and, of all the applicants, van Helten was the only person who didn’t submit a final image for consideration. Instead,
when told the community wanted to see something that combined Indigenous culture, the natural environment, and the coal mining history of Collie, he came back and said “without consulting with the community - without hearing their stories, meeting them in person, hearing their side I can’t give you an image”. Van Helten’s work is always underpinned by the sentiments of the community that it sits in so, in order to shape his final image, he visitbunburygeographe.com.au
