OTR: Mural Town … Sheffield

From Deloraine, we headed to the town of Sheffield. That it was on our way to CMNP was a good thing. But we would have detoured for this one if necessary. You see, Sheffield is “The Town of Murals.” With over 100 pieces of artwork on display, it is part of Tasmania’s “Outdoor Art Gallery.”

The backstory to the murals goes back to 1986 when a group of locals wanted to find a way to save their town from economic hardship. A couple of the members had seen a documentary about a town in Canada — Chemainus — that had turned things around and made their town a tourist destination by painting murals on the walls of buildings. With a ready-made audience of Cradle Mountain bus tours stopping in Sheffield to use the public toilets, the town leaders decided to follow in the footsteps of Chemainus. And the rest, as they say, is history.

We started out at the Mural Park. With some 30+ colorful works in one place, I was in mural heaven. I liked that each one had a cover over it to protect it from the elements. A quick in/out at the Art Gallery near the park. And then Mui pulled out the mural walking map and guided me around town to find the murals scattered all around the streets. I didn’t photograph them all … but came darn close to it.

At about the halfway point, we stopped in at a café recommended by a local to get some meat pies for lunch. The flavor we wanted wasn’t out of the oven yet. The counter clerk checked and said they had 7 minutes to go … and promised to save us a couple when we said we’d go search for some more murals while we waited. Good thing she did. We were barely seated when a tour group packed the place.

What a delightful time we had in Sheffield. Not even the wind that was a-blowin’ made a dent in our pleasure in seeing all the colorful art around town.Read more