Harden Regional Development Corporation this week announced it will be undertaking the painting of the Murrumburrah Mills.
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HRDC chair Richard Fleming says the painting of the mills is a great project for the towns and something that has been the focus of the HRDC committee for some time.
"The painting of the Murrumburrah Mills will add another exciting drawcard to the town. The mural will connect Harden Murrumburrah to the NSW Mill Painting trail, attract the tourism drive markets and create a destination stop of road trippers," Mr Fleming said.
"The timing couldn't be better to begin the project in the wake of the Murrumboola Creek redevelopment announcement. The mural will add to the beautification of the area giving people a real insight to the history of the mills as well as becoming a connection point between the new development and the business district of Murrumburrah."
The land for the mill was purchased in 1858 by Miles Murphy and the flour mill was completed in 1865.
In 1868 Thomas Allsopp purchased the mill and introduced many new concepts into the production of milling.
The famous "Allsopps Silver Spray Flour" won many awards including 25 country society recognised awards.
In 1919, a major fire occurred on site, and from 1919-1922 the flour mill complex was rebuilt, including the building of the concrete twin silos within the complex.
The new system included the train carriage of raw product to the site, off the Sydney-Melbourne train line system directly to the twin silos for storage.
An electrical auger system was implemented to carry the product up into the twin silos, all quite "revolutionary" at the time.
In 1991 the silos were mothballed, and storage discontinued.
HRDC CEO Chris Ireland said that they have engaged renowned silo and street artist Heesco to complete the project.
"Heesco is an accomplished mural artist originally from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia who moved to Melbourne in 2010. Heesco specialises in silo painting having completed works in Grenfell and Weethalle and has won many awards in his field including the Footscray Art Prize for Street Art," Mr Ireland said.
"Now we need your help to decide. In conjunction with the Harden Murrumburrah Historical Society and mill owners Greg and Robyn Medway, we gave the artist a full history of the mills and a lot of historical photographs. Heesco has given us two options and we are putting it out there for the community to decide."
Historical Society president Lorraine Brown said the option for calling for community input in the design process is a great initiative.
"The painting is going to be there for the foreseeable future, and I praise the artist and HRDC in giving the community the voice to decide. The historical society has been working with Heesco over the past few months to ensure we gave him enough information and imagery to create two beautiful options. Now it's up to us to decide."
Voting will be open on August 26, 2020 and remain open for a period of two weeks.
How to vote:
- Simply log on to www.hrdc.org.au (from Wednesday, August 26 2020)
- Fill in the information and click your choice
The successful impression will be announced on September 9, 2020.
People that do not have access to a computer, tablet or the internet may vote in person at the following places:
- HRDC Offices Harden
- Flemings Real Estate
- Harden Bearings and Hardware
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