On Friday, Oct. 16, Benalla’s ceramic mural reached a turning point after years behind a safety fence. The Benalla Ensign reported that the public artwork was open again for the first time since 2024, as conservators wrapped up the final restoration work. On site that day, project conservator Penny Byrne said the team was finishing its work and expected the fencing to come down once it was complete.
The mural began as a community art project in 1983. Local artist Judy Lorraine became artist in residence in 1985, and artists and other collaborators built the work with bricks from an older building that had stood above the site. It took about 25 years to finish; the mural was officially opened in 2010, according to the Ensign’s report.
An Aug. 21 Benalla Ensign report said Council described the original idea as an open gallery where passersby could rest and reflect, with room for children to play. It said the project drew on traditional potters, established visual artists and community members, including guided amateurs, young and old. The restoration again brought original mural artist Regina Laity-Plex into the work, commissioning gargoyles to cover the new drainage pipes.
The artwork is part of the Benalla Art Gallery collection and has served as a community space during the Benalla Festival and Diwali celebrations. Pipes built into the structure form a musical feature locals call the “thongophone”: they can be tapped with thongs, or sandals, to make notes. These details show how the mural has functioned as a public place as well as a visual artwork.
Keeping the structure safe required addressing problems that had developed over time. The adhesive holding tiles in place had deteriorated, and some tiles had fallen. Water was also getting into the structure and weakening its interior. The safety fence had stood around the mural for years because of the risk that large tiles could fall, Byrne told the Ensign.
The restoration team encountered the water problem directly. When Byrne and her colleagues arrived in 2024, the mural was under a metre of floodwater during widespread flooding in Victoria. Byrne said seeing the water on site helped clarify the need to improve drainage. The team created new drainage holes around the upper terrace so water could leave the structure more effectively.
Those practical repairs also made room for a creative detail. The new drainage pipes were white and visually prominent, Byrne said, so the project commissioned Regina Laity-Plex, one of the original mural artists, to make gargoyles that cover them. Byrne told the Ensign the team was pleased to have Laity-Plex involved again.
The work brought together specialist conservation and local artistic knowledge. Project conservator Helen Gill and heritage tiler Michael Hathaway were on site with Byrne to finish the restoration on Oct. 16. Byrne described working on the mural as a delight and said the goal was to make it safe for the community again.
The return matters because the mural was designed as shared public art, not a piece to be viewed only behind a barrier. Its history links generations of artists and collaborators, while its use during local festivals and celebrations has given the structure a role in community life. The project also brought one of the original artists back into the work through the gargoyles.
An Aug. 21 Benalla Ensign report said Council expected the final conservation phase to run from late September to mid-October, after which the full mural would be open. In its Oct. 16 report, the paper described the mural as open again and quoted Byrne on the final work. The two reports bracket the planned restoration window with an on-site account of its conclusion.
The work centered on safety and conservation: it addressed falling tiles and drainage while keeping the mural in place and involving an original artist. That combination of specialist repair and community participation has helped preserve a public artwork made over many years.
A community artwork can take decades to make and require careful upkeep to remain safe. Benalla’s mural was built through local collaboration, and its latest restoration again involved conservation specialists and an original artist. With the Ensign reporting that public access had returned, the shared landmark could once more be part of the town’s public life.
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