Weddin Shire Council met for their ordinary monthly meeting on Thursday, September 21.

Councillors discussed the mural concept designs which were to be adopted and displayed on the Grenfell Motel.

It was noted in the business paper that three mural concepts had been received and the community were asked to vote on their preferred design, and that there were proposed changes suggested for all 3 designs. The final decision on the preferred concept and amendments was requested for Council approval.

The recommendation within the business paper was that Council endorses concept one for the mural design, as voted by the community, and adopts the proposed amendments based on the initial proposed changes and the most frequently mentioned community feedback from the survey, being:

• Remove the owl and tree stump.

• Replace the moon with an expanded starry night sky.

• Remove the large grevillea and replace with Brundah Mint / Wattle.

• Replace the machinery remnants with a timber fence post or log.

• Swap the honeyeater for a superb parrot and reduce the size of both bird images.

• Reposition the horse so it is not standing over the fire.

• More of a defined Weddin Mountains in the background.

The recommendation also asked Council to approve the Arts, Tourism and Evens team to work with Mountain Ash Creative to make the changes to Concept One and proceed with the final design and note that the relocation of the existing portraits on the Grenfell Motel wall will be managed through a separate process, with a report going to the December Council meeting.

The Director of Corporate Services, John Thompson said they had a lot of community consultation around the murals and received some feedback.

Mr Thompson said the proposal is that the current mural will be relocated somewhere and won't be removed and not reused, with a proposal about where the current mural goes to being slated to be discussed in the December meeting.

In terms of the current mural, Mr Thompson said this was really an intention to try and celebrate Grenfell's unique identity, enhancing the local streetscape with some some different artwork um reflecting the community's values and enhancing the local environment and promoting pride and connection among residents.

Mr Thompson said the RFQ (request for quote) was awarded to Daniel Walton and Scott Nagy of Mountain Ash Creative at the end of September, 2024, with a drop in session with the artists and the community.

Three designs were prepared and provided to staff which where then put out for community consultation.

Mr Thompson said the community consultation overwhelmingly voted on concept one, with around 44 percent of the vote, and there were also some recommendations to Council to make some changes to the concept, which were included in the business paper.

Weddin Shire Mayor, Councillor Paul Best said he thinks it has been a good process and a fair bit of community consultation about this.

Cr Best said he thinks they are great murals, and even while it is slightly different from what they are used to, but they know how successful the murals on the silo have been in attracting visitors to town.

Councillor Wez Makin said he thinks the mural will be awesome to see once the final concept is there so people can see what it will look like with all of the changes.

Cr Best said it is important to note the mural will be painted on boards on the building - not actually painted on the side of the building.

Cr Best said the murals may not be on there forever and can moved if the need arises.

Council voted to endorse concept one as the mural design, subject to developmental approval.