Winton a hive of placemaking-public art

Recently Fiona and I were fortunate enough to do a road trip to Mackay and Longreach for art purposes. On the way to Longreach we passed through Winton and were impressed with a number of placemaking art pieces including: the Waltzing Matilda story; the Musical fence; and Arno's Wall.

In this post I will share a few photos of the Waltzing Matilda display and will do separate posts on the Musical Fence and Arno's crazy wall.

The Waltzing Matilda place is on a median strip in the main street. The Waltzing Matilda poem originated in Winton so it is really part of that place; and the public art is therefore connected to the community - it creates a sense pof place. The 'art piece' consists of a series of sandstone blocks - about 900mm high and 600mm square. Each block has a verse of Waltzing Matilda and out of the block is some bronze piece that represents the core element of the verse. The photos show the overall place and a few of the blocks. The other thing that amazed us was that this was created with public funds.