Lap Around Australia: Geraldton Art & Heritage

Art & Heritage in Geraldton

We are trying to appreciate the beauty and history that surrounds us here in Geraldton.I think this town has worked very hard to preserve its heritage and improve the aesthetics of the place with its wonderful foreshore redevelopment. Walking around town is actually a pleasure. One of the things that initially caught our eye was the wonderful colourful street art. It's all over the place, including at the harbour. Certainly makes a difference to ugly tagging and graffiti that might be there otherwise.

 

 

 

 

We'd driven past the lovely old building housing the Art Gallery several times before finding the time to actually go inside. The building itself once served as the town hall and was used for town social gatherings in the past such as dances and meetings. It was almost destined to be pulled down for parking space  but was saved by a group of enthusiastic locals who have re-purposed it as an art gallery. When we visited there was a special exhibition on the ground floor and the upper floor was out of bounds. There was only one artist's work being shown and that was a Perth born part Aboriginal artist called Julie Dowling. She has a degree in Fine Arts and her work is not your typical dot painting. Rather she works like at Ethnographer recording the deep-seated injustices in the indigenous community. Her work has a strong political edge.
We enjoyed seeing her work. It's mainly of Indigenous faces and sometimes who figures surrounded by colourful and painstaking dot work in more traditional style. She's a well recognised and awarded Australian artist.

 

 

After spending quite a bit of time here we went into town to have lunch at the bakery. Sausage rolls get the thumbs up....as does their coffee.

After lunch we headed to the Museum which is on the waterfront. Outside in the marina we saw a replica of The Batavia's longboat. The boat marina is really pretty.

 

 

The museum is well set up, light and airy. Entrance is by donation. We ended up putting in $10 as $5 per head was the recommended amount. We both went our separate ways once inside as we view things at a very different pace. John likes to read everything on the displays. Barb likes to photograph things and reed in depth what catches her fancy.

The displays covered a vast array of history  and native flora and fauna of the area. Barb finally got to see a great pictorial collage of the local wildflowers. We ended up spending quite some time here as it was so interesting.

That evening we went to the movies again to see "The Mountains Between Us" starring Kate Winslet. A quite enjoyable movie (if you can suspend your disbelief at the sometimes weak plot) The main actors were really good and carried the film.