Best Road Trips for Art Lovers

Australia’s beautiful and varied landscapes provide the perfect canvas for a range of contemporary art, including large-scale painted grain silos, street art and even characterful fibreglass cows. Here are four ideas for road trips that will inspire your creativity and give you a new perspective on your destination.

Scenic Art Drives around Australia

In the past 10 years, our beautiful outback landscapes have become renowned for a unique contemporary art form – silo art. What started as a project to bring tourism dollars to a regional town has now spread across the country, with art subjects ranging from the native wildlife depicted in Newdegate, Western Australia, to the “Three Moon” legend illustrated in Queensland’s North Burnett region, and the primary school children immortalised in Coonalpyn, South Australia. The Australian Silo Art Trail website can help you plan a road trip to find public silo art in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia - or you can embark on the 8500km journey to see them all!

Street Art Road Trip in Tasmania

When you think of Australian street art, you might conjure images of inner west Sydney’s political murals or Melbourne’s open-air galleries. But a 25km drive south of Devonport lies a surprising discovery: Tasmania’s “Town of Murals”. The town is Sheffield, located in a dairy-farming region, and the first mural was painted in the 1980s to depict the town’s history and landscape. Now, some 600 murals colour the walls and buildings across town, drawing in tourists and artists alike. The town also hosts an annual Mural Fest (3-9 November 2024), where artists compete in an outdoor, real-time painting competition, with the results showcased in the town’s Mural Park until the next festival.

Unique Outdoor Art Installations in Victoria

Drive through Shepparton (190km north of Melbourne) and you might do a double-take when gazing out the window. Dotted around the region’s parks and public spaces are 90 life-sized cow sculptures, each uniquely painted with colourful artwork. Collectively known as the Moooving Art Cows, they were initially created by local artists to celebrate the local dairy industry. Subject matters in the ever-expanding herd range from apple crates (She’ll be Apples by TANK) to Indigenous designs (Sista by Tammy-Lee Atkinson) to weird and wonderful depictions of bacon and eggs. There are also pieces painted in the distinctive styles of Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Vincent van Gogh. The cows regularly “mooove” locations; you can find the latest map on the Shepparton and Goulburn Valley tourism website.

Art Lovers’ Road Trip to Canberra

For art appreciators, it’s hard to look past Canberra as a road trip-worthy destination. Of course there’s the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), but don’t underestimate what lies outside those gallery walls. The NGA’s Sculpture Garden sits on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin and was conceived as a series of “outdoor rooms” showcasing a variety of large-scale sculptures by local and international artists. You won’t miss seeing the 4m-high Ouroboros, a recent addition by Lindy Lee that allows visitors to walk into the sculpture that is lit by a series of perforations creating a natural light show. There’s more outdoor art at Forest Sculpture Gallery, a new contemporary art space located among the 44,000 rare and endangered trees of the National Arboretum. You won’t regret this drive – be it from New South Wales or Victoria.

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^{Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd (“Viva Energy”) has compiled the above article for your general information and to use as a general reference. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken by Viva Energy in compiling this article, Viva Energy does not warrant or represent that the information in the article is free from errors or omissions or is suitable for your intended use.}