The small but mighty Gippsland town of Yarram was named as the best place in Australia to experience a collection of stunning street murals by Melbourne-based artist Heesco.
Yarram won the Gold Award in highly coveted Best Street Art Trail category at the 2020 Australian Street Art Awards.
Australian arts tourists are high value visitors – they stay 42.8% longer and spend 55.9% more when travelling than domestic tourists overall, according to the Australia Council for the Arts’ Domestic Art Tourism 2020 Report.
With rigorous judging by tourism leaders from across Australia and abroad, plus second-tier auditing and due diligence, Yarram’s win has the credence of the art tourism sector.
Yarram recently adopted the moniker of “Heesco Town” in honour of the Melbourne-based street and silo artist who has transformed it into Australia’s newest and hottest art destination. Most of the 17 outdoor murals painted to date were completed during the initial COVID lockdown from March 2020, a period which was very challenging for so many towns and villages across Australia.”
Yarram is the only town in Australia adorned with so many works by the one artist.
The judges said, “We love that Yarram pulled up its socks, strapped on its thinking cap and turned to street art as a secret weapon during this period. Along the way they created hope, joy, a blaze of colour and an Australian first.”
About the Heesco Town murals
The murals were painted by world-renowned street and silo artist Heesco Khosnaran over a five-week period in March 2020. The project, also known as ‘HEESCOTOWN,’ was the brainchild of local Yarram resident Eric Greenaway and has been coordinated and documented by film-makers and owners of The Bull Bar, Anne & Wayne Tindall.
Mural locations include the prominent walls of MG Trading and the Federal Coffee Palace at each end of the town, the iconic Alberton Pub, The Ship Inn and bold new local bar The Bull Bar. Murals can be found on the following local businesses:
Location of the murals in Yarram
- Alberton Hotel – 53 Turnbull St, Alberton
- Brown Wigg – 191 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- Bull Bar & Gallery – 258 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- Drakefords – 259 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- Federal Coffee Palace – 305 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- Beta Electronics – 262 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- MG Trading – 39 Commercial Rd, Yarram
- Ship Inn – 480 Commercial Rd, Yarram (two murals)
- Wynnes Building – Wynnes Building, Yarram
- Yarram Bakery – Yarram Bakery, Yarram
- Yarram Golf Course – 42 Golf Links Rd, Yarram
Head to Yarram, a picturesque town of just over 2,000 people, two and a half hours drive south east of Melbourne to experience the murals for yourself. Yarram is a great base from which to explore the cool temperate rainforest of Tarra Bulga National Park, the historic fishing village of Port Albert, the highest single span falls in Victoria, Agnes Falls, and the start of the world’s second-longest uninterrupted beach, the 90 Mile Beach.
Read more about Gippsland and what you can do there here.
