Artists who contributed to the trail have taken home gold after it was announced that Tongala has the best street art trail in Australia at the 2022 Australian Street Art Awards.
Tongala nudged out the Maryborough Mural Project on Queensland’s Fraser Coast, which won the silver award, and a quirky trail of artwork in Kalgoorlie-Boulder called “Little Finds”, which snagged the bronze award.
The art trail project, run by the Tongala Lions has helped community members to develop a more powerful sense of pride in their town.
Murray Ross, a spokesperson for the project said words could not describe how proud and excited the town was.
“Our volunteer artists have worked so hard over the past few years to give visitors a reason to come to Tongala and this is the icing on the cake,” Mr Ross said.
“We’re expecting a positive result for our local economy now that we’ve provided even more reasons to come and visit our little mural town.”
Home to more than 50 volunteer-produced works, Tongala’s murals tell a story of the town’s early settlers, their meeting places, as well as the joys and tribulations they faced.
Further pieces were then added to demonstrate how industries have shaped the town into becoming the community that it is today.
A spokesperson for the Australian Street Art Awards said the town of Tongala really took on the feedback they were provided by judges last year.
“Tongala’s win proves that even small communities can gain an excellent understanding of their visitor market and work cleverly to attract those people,” the spokesperson said.
“It is inspiring to hear how murals painted by locals have been used to breathe life back into this town.”
Awards director Liz Rivers said the Tongala street art trail contributes to making Australia a more vibrant, creative and interesting country.
She said domestic arts tourists are high-value tourists who stay almost one-and-a-half times longer when there are appealing art attractions for people to marvel at.
“Smart communities promote their outdoor art, including monuments and memorials, as a unique landmark — an attraction that visitors can see in only place, and that makes their destination immediately identifiable, highly attractive and a drawcard for art-loving tourists,” Ms Rivers said.
“Investing in outdoor art as an attraction makes economic sense as it is typically less expensive to create than more traditional tourism attractions while the pay-off is handsome.”
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