Self-Guided Melbourne Street Art Tour

We spent the bulk of our first day following a self-guided street art tour. What struck me as we followed the turn-by-turn instructions was how different each spot was. In addition to a hidden Banksy, we saw tile artwork, frames, someone creating a commissioned art piece, and murals that were several stories high. The other thing that amazed me was we could find all of the artwork. Often street art is covered over by new artwork.

Looking for the page I used, I also came across a shorter tour with only ten spots. This page includes lots of pictures of what to look for. As would be expected, there is much overlapping. 

Our tour said it would take about 2 hours. That doesn't account for us wanting to enjoy and photograph the artwork, or for us not following their terrific directions.

Stop 1: Strachan Lane

A small, unassuming laneway with some impressive street art. There is a piece by Adnete over the Harley House, an underground bar. There are more pieces inside, but we did not go inside the bar. 

Haunting

Stop 2: Duckboard Place

The alleyway boasts street art, gig posters, and restaurants -- we did not come back to eat here as the places seemed more expensive than our tastes.

The highlight were the two hidden Bansky rats. Rumor has it one is his and the other is a copy. Googling Bansky in Melbourne brings an article about the time in 2008 when in an effort to preserve his 2003 artwork by putting a plastic cover on it, someone immediately poured silver paint behind the sheet and wrote "Bansky woz ere" on it, thus ruining it. These two rats may or may not be his, as is often the case with the elusive artist.

Rumored to be a copy

Rumored to be real

Some art that caught my eye

This is another lane filled with what we think of when we think of street art -- art created by spray painting walls, some worthy of museums, others not so much. 

The hanging shoes also
caught my attention

Fintan Magee's Man Carrying
a Tree

I love all things Alice in Wonderland

Fintan Magee's Man Carrying a Tree is prominently placed at the end of the alley.

Brisbane based artist Steen Jones's tribute to Melbourne is eye catching. 

The third stop is around the corner: AC/DC Lane named after the Australian pop band of the same name. The street boasts colorful rock 'n roll tributes including a 3-D sculpture of Bon Scott, a huge portrait of Malcolm Young. We revisited this lane a couple of days later on a free walking tour.

A mere wall cannot contain him!

Stop 4 is the famous Hosier Lane. My notes prior to coming to Melbourne recommended stopping by this ever-changing street. This street reminded me more of street art I've seen around world than any other street. There were initials painted over other artist's work, and a wide assortment of art. 

As we turned down the street I caught a whiff of fresh spray paint. Further down the street we caught this artist working on a mural I felt was destined to become a keeper for years. He had a plan, and an outline of what was to come. Don and I promised him we would stop by in a few days to see how it turned out.

I wonder how he is going
to reach the upper sections?

Some 3-D art

Hosier Lane also includes another painting by Adnate, this one of an Indigenous boy gazing towards the river, a more permanent installation.

Presgrave Place was stop number five. Here we moved in a completely different direction of street art to framed art. Lots and lots and lots of small framed pieces of art. Each one seemed worthy of its own story. Some were photographs, others posters, stickers, and work made from recycled materials. It was so overwhelming it was impossible to concentrate on parts of the collection the first time we were there. On our second visit a couple of days later we were able to look at individual pieces.

Notes from our Saturday tour: Melbourne has a turbulent relationship with street art. In 2008 a replica of Melbourne's street art was installed at Walt Disney World. When John Brumby, the Victorian Prime Minister heard about it, he called street art "a blight on the city," and demanded it be torn down.

These frames appeared almost overnight, within 24 hours. They are ever changing. A great example that street art does not always have to include spray pain.

Sunfigo is famous for his ribbon art

Hundreds of framed art

With some quirky items tossed into
the collection

Our tour continued to Union Lane, famous for vibrant tags and graffiti-style art. It took us to Bourke Street, which is famous for buskers, shopping, and cafes. One of the things I loved about this self-guided tour was that the writer pointed out local places to eat along the way. Unlike the street art, which I would have thought of as transient, many of the small cafes closed during the pandemic.

I'm not finding any pictures from that street, so we'll press forward to Stop 7: Tattersalls Lane. By this point in the journey we were reaching saturation overload, but we vowed to make it at least until the half-way point.

The self-guided tour says there is a colorful abstract mural by Nelson Cekis from Chile. I'm going to guess based on our pictures, this one between the windows is it. If I am wrong, may the right artist be reading this and correct me, or may Mr. Cekis send me a copy of his artwork to replace this one. Looking at his website, this seems to be in his style and is on the right street.

Way up high is this 2012 collaboration between Adnate and Shida, an Australian artist well-known for multidisciplinary large-scale public art murals.  

Wow!

Drewery Lane was our half-way spot. It could not have been any further from what my impression of street art. Most of the block is taken up by a mosaic of handmade tiles in honor of Legacy House, a long-time resident charity. The tiles are created by children with ties to the military. Sixty thousand troops were killed in World War I. It is a moving experience studying the vast quantity of tiny memorials, even though we have no connection to any of them. Don and I noted on this trip how much more connected Australians are to both World Wars than most Americans seem to be.

The street also contains a Space Invader, which started in France and is located in 17 cities worldwide.  We did not notice this the first time we went down this street.

The wall was covered in tiles

A close-up

Having made it to the halfway point we paused for gelato. I skim-read the rest of the list to see if anything else was catching our immediate interest. I landed on the next stop: Guildford Lane.

As we entered the street

In 2017 this industrial street was transformed into a public garden thanks to one person's dream and vision, and a fight with town hall. The street is now thriving with a sense of community. We talked to a woman as she was leaving her restaurant job for the day. Her whole face lit up as she described the change in the vibe of the neighborhood. It is an example of how one person can make a positive difference in the world. 

Mural by Melbourne artist Mike Makatron on the door of an old electric substation.  Looking at his website, this seems to be one of his smaller murals. He is also a sculptor. 

The flowers are what you notice first

Then the sculptures seem to magically appear. I think this was my favorite street because of its story of transformation.

Always think of Cousin Laura
when we see chickens

There was plenty of street art to be seen throughout Melbourne that was not on the map. Here are a few random examples:

One night with perfect weather and no other plans took us on a quest to find the Keith Haring mural I read about while researching things to to in Melbourne. It was definitely an out of the tourist district experience. The walk probably took us an hour from the Central Business District (CBD), through neighborhoods and parks, past people waiting for mass transit to take them home for the night, and groups of friends gathering to go out to the local bar for some drinks, past shops closing for the night, and places to pick something up for dinner. At no point did it feel ominous or threatening, just witnessing slices of ordinary life that are often missed when on vacation.

The scale of the 1984 mural is hard to appreciate in a photograph. It covers the side of a building. It was created during a three-week stay in Melbourne from February 18-March 8, 1984. There was a restoration in 2013 by Antonio Rava, internationally renowned conservator from Turin, years after Haring died.

One last tale, this one not so happy.

As we were walking around Melbourne on our last evening saying a mental good-bye to our favorite sites, I wanted to see how the mural we smelled and witnessed being created was shaping up. Through the use of memory and GPS provided automatically with pictures taken by our iPhones, we found the spot. 

At first, I couldn't believe it. It had to be on a different street, I said to Don. This can't be it. Then I looked up and saw the sketching, and looked at my pictures taken before and afterwards and realized, yup, the stunning mural was painted over as far as someone with a roller could reach. The outline was still visible up high, but at street level all others saw was a black blank canvas.

It was a sad way to end our trip to Melbourne.