The tallest mural in Australia and indeed the southern hemisphere can be found in Collingwood a suburb of Melbourne. Painted by Matt Adnate it sits on the corner of Wellington Street and Vere Street and features the faces of four residents of the building.
Standing 20 storeys high, the Melbourne’s Tallest mural is on the Collingwood public housing block. It’s quite a facade for a building which was part of a wave of public housing initiatives that went up in the 60’s. Certainly the mural has transformed the building.
Tallest Mural in Australia
Matt Adnate is a local artist. His murals are known worldwide though his work can be primarily seen in Australia. Commissioned by the street art agency Juddy Roller they teamed up with the local minister for planning Richard Wynne to make it happen. It was always going to be an ambitious task to paint Australia’s tallest mural. However they’ve been responsible for many of the big set piece street art murals across the country including much of the Silo Art Trail.
Faces of Fitzroy
The mural itself features the faces of six year old Arden Watson Copley and 10 year old Ni Na Nguyen. Both were being raised in the flats by single parent mothers. The adult portraits feature Badria Abdo who came to Australia as a refugee in 2006. From Oromia in Ethiopia originally she had spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp. It also features Yulius Antares Taime, originally from West Papua in Indonesia. He also came to Australia just a year before.
Adnate himself is an artist known for his use of art which promotes conversation. His murals on the Collingwood tower block in Melbourne feature inhabitants of that space. By depicting them so prominently the community becomes more visible. More entwined with the wider community around them. They are impossible to miss.
The mural by Adnate on the Collingwood Public Housing Block is located on Wellington Street in Collingwood, Melbourne. It can be found on the corner of Vere Street and was visited in November 2019.
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Awesome what a guy.
Brilliant!