Sheffield - Tasmania's Town of Murals

In the rolling green pasture-lands of northern Tasmania, quaint and quiet villages dot the countryside at irregular intervals along the country roads, empty except for a tractor here and a cluster of cows there. As you drive through these villages, you notice that they are pretty in a sort of characterless way - a place where residents stay and visitors don't.

Tasmanians have always been looked upon by Australian mainlanders to the north as backward, rural folk. Yet they themselves look at this remote corner of their island as a place where time has come to a standstill. And in a way it has.

One of these towns, a place called Sheffield, decided to change its fate some 18 years ago and has since become a rural landmark, a source of identity and pride for the region's people, and, indeed, a Tasmanian treasure.

In the mid-80s, it became apparent that the local economy was stagnant and any short-term remedy was unsustainable. The townspeople met and decided that something had to be done. Perhaps they could tap into tourism?

But Sheffield had nothing exceptional to offer except a rich and colourful regional history made by plenty of just as colourful characters. Even the most parochial Sheffielders knew how fickle tourists can be; flitting from one attraction to another, looking for camera fodder. What to do...

Someone had heard of a town in Canada, not unlike this one, that had brought its economy back from the brink by painting expansive murals on its town walls, thereby telling all about itself and its history. Tourists came from near and far, enchanted by this unique and creative outdoor history class. In the end, the murals were credited with saving this Canadian town.

So in 1986, the ambitious Murals Project was launched. Ambitious, but careful and studied like the people themselves. Word went out to all Tasmanian painters - professionals and amateurs alike - while local historians suggested suitable themes and characters.

The Murals Project committee's one guiding principle was simply "that Sheffield would have an outdoor art gallery of heroic proportions, depicting the pioneering history of the district and its people."

The result? Since then, this story has had a fairy-tale ending. Nearly 18 years and 24 murals later, Sheffield has found its place on Tasmania's tourist maps. While little Sheffield has yet to experience its first traffic jam, the number of visitors to this now literally picturesque town has grown substantially. Every wall on Main Street has an interesting depiction, as rich in colour as in meaning.