Observation deck: Tongala artist Murray Ross painted the metal shapes of the native animals that adorn the home-made platform fences, while the Aboriginal and Australian flag were created by Gavin Connally.
The new Kyabram Mural Platform is open to the public, and was christened by the Goulburn Valley Motor Vehicle Drivers Club last week.
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The observation deck that looks out on the water tank mural was once the dilapidated Kyabram Railway Station.
The final piece of construction on the platform, the shade shed, was finished just in time for a visit from members of the club, who packed it out and made good use of the new community space.
President of the project committee that’s responsible for the work, Allan Weeks, says the Kyabram water tank mural has become a tourist attraction for people travelling around Australia who stop to look at significant sites.
“In the last week, we've had people from Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra that have signed a book at the platform, and not everyone signs,” Mr Weeks said.
“We even got a couple of signatures from Mexico.”
The project committee applied for three grants over the duration of the project. It was denied the first two times, and on the third Campaspe Shire Council paid out $600 to buy an electric blower.
Despite this, and after hundreds of hours of volunteer labour, the committee ended up completing work valued at $250,000 for only $40,000.
“That’s the big advantage of being able to do it yourself with community support,” Mr Weeks said.
The committee was quoted around $7000 for the fencing, but instead Mr Weeks sourced some second-hand fences, bought enough to fence the platform for $800, and then took them to his workshop where he sanded and painted them for installation, which he did himself too.
The thousands of dollars saved during construction was invested into further improvements such as hot-mix to lay down a solid bitumen surface instead of loose gravel.
The project committee volunteers did the concrete foundations themselves, with support from local businesses.
The shed on the platform was put up by Kyabram Steel and Kyabram Mini Diggers did the levelling for the deck with 260 tonnes of loose rock provided by Mawson’s Quarry in Corop for a good deal, which was transported by Kyabram Sand and Gravel, which also donated six buckets of sand to fill holes during construction.
Tongala artist Murray Ross painted the metal shapes of the native animals that adorn the home-made platform fences, while the Aboriginal and Australian flags were created by Gavin Connally.
The old heritage rail track changing gear is on show to honour the original site. And Castlemaine Railway Heritage Group donated rails to be used for decoration on the entry to the platform.
Heritage: Castlemaine Railway Heritage Group donated rails to be used for decoration at the entry to the platform.
Mr Weeks says the committee has a cutout of the first train that ran on the line through Kyabram Station, which will be installed over the entrance.
The Kyabram Men’s Shed produced some of the signage on display.
The next job is to get permits from council to put up information signs for visitors to the area, Mr Weeks said. These will display a map of the lands of the First Nations people of the region and a map of the Kyabram Fauna Park.
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