Community feedback through Council's Placemaking & Recreation Strategy showed strong community support to have more arts & culture, particularly public art, in Tara.

Public Art projects have taken place in Dalby, Chinchilla, and Miles for the improvement of placemaking, public spaces/facilities, and public art, and now its Tara's turn.

Such projects are beneficial for wellbeing and building resilience and help to support recovery processes in our region.

Community input was sought for a mural to be painted on the external wall of the Tara Soldiers Memorial Hall and this input was used to formulate a design. The Tara Public Art project will now be undertaken by local artist Regina Hyland, launching towards the end-August and taking up to three weeks to complete.

Residents were encouraged to share their ideas via a survey by Friday 26 April, or to attend the Community Engagement Session that took place on Monday, 22 April.

This was a chance for residents to get involved and have a say in what they wanted to see in this art project.

The 2024 Tara Public Art Project was commissioned to acknowledge, inspire, and celebrate the Tara Community with a mural imbued with joy, fun and colour.

The mural will be completed by local artist Regina Hyland, on the wall of the Soldier's Memorial Hall. Regina Hyland worked with the Tara Community and High School students in face-to-face engagement sessions to develop concepts which represented what makes Tara unique to them and how it differs to other communities. Online survey results also informed the content of the mural.

Overwhelmingly, what locals appreciate most about Tara is its community spirit and natural environment.

We acknowledge that the community has faced significant challenges. You also told us that one of the things that make Tara a great place to live is how you "band together" and "support each other" during times of disaster to "come out better on the other side".

It is this care for each other, set amidst Tara's landscape, that the artist has celebrated in her design.

Check out the draft design and rationale below and tell us what you love about this design:

The Cockatoo and Galah are the focus of this mural: they are depicted "catching up for a chat" among the gum leaves. It is the artist's intention that the artwork would act as a conversation starter: it is a light-hearted and gentle reminder to check in on your mates.

Tara Photographer and TSSC Librarian, Linda Steinohrt, is renowned for her magnificent ability to capture these iconic examples of Australian birdlife locally. Her photographs have been used in the mural design, with her permission.

The artist felt the large scale of the main objects in the design was a necessity given the location of the mural. It will be located close to an intersection of the main street in town, and the scale ensures easy visibility from the adjacent four corners. Motorists travelling past will be able to easily make out the subject matter from multiple vantage points.

Tara Lagoon Parklands is a well-loved iconic attraction in Tara, and the artist visited the location to capture visual stimuli of local fauna and flora to inform the artwork.

Photographs of gum leaves taken at the location have been used as a mid-ground feature to frame the birds in the foreground.

Forming the background of the public art piece is a colourful sky that pops the imagery in front of it. The township of Tara is on the Sunset Way Tourist Drive, and the locals are so proud of the big, beautiful sunsets out their way: it is fitting that the mural incorporates these epic skies.

Endeared to our culture, the line of Aussie slang, "How Ya Goin?" is a question that can be heard right across our country. It is most often used as a greeting but has literal significance around the importance of checking in on each other. As Kate M. John said, "A problem shared is a problem halved". Thus, "How Ya Goin?" is the proposed titled for the design.

There will be an opportunity to come and join in painting and participating in the mural on Saturday 31 August 2024. If you would like to be contacted with a reminder, please register details below: