When people think of the Victorian gold rush, Ballarat and Bendigo are often the first places that come to mind.
Keilor East artist Debbie Qadri is keen to show Keilor’s part in the golden post-1852 era, and to do so she’s glued ceramic tiles to create a mural on a ventilation tower above a sewerage pipe. The project was completed last week.
“The gold rush turned Keilor into a bustling town, from an area when it was virtually unknown,” Qadri said.
Since last September, she has worked with more than 20 year 8 students from Overnewton College, their art teacher and the Keilor Historical Society on the Overnewton Road project.
“When people arrived in Melbourne in the 1850s, they would buy a wheelbarrow and a spade and use the wheelbarrow to push their belongings towards the goldfields, a journey of many days over rough ground,” she said.
“The first stop on the journey was Essendon after a day’s walk, and the second stop on that journey after two days’ walking was Keilor.”
Qadri also worked on a mosaic mural unveiled last month in the Deer Park Arcade.
This mural features past and present icons of the area, including the Deer Park Hotel, the Albion Explosives Factory, the Black Powder Mill, the old Kororoit State School and the 1928-built bridge over the Kororoit Creek.
