Sheffield

Sheffield was a declining farm service town in the mid-1980s when a group of residents, inspired by a Canadian town that had done the same, commissioned murals on its walls to draw travellers off the highway. It worked: more than a hundred murals now cover buildings and fences through the town, depicting local history, pioneers, the hydro schemes and the surrounding mountains, and an annual mural festival adds new works painted to a set theme in a single week, with the entries displayed in a park afterwards. Mount Roland rises above the town, a quartzite ridge with a demanding summit walk, and the Tasmazing maze and Tasmanian Arboretum are close.

History

Sheffield was one of many townships settled in 1859, named by Edward Curr after his home town in Yorkshire, and its post office, opened as Kentishbury on 1 November 1862, took the name Sheffield in 1882. The Mersey-Forth power scheme, seven dams and seven power stations built from 1963 to 1973, made the town grow fast and then shrink, and residents inspired by Chemainus in Canada began painting murals to revive it, the first in December 1986, with an international mural competition held every year since 2003 (Wikipedia, Sheffield, Tasmania).

What you'll find

• The murals - more than a hundred painted works through the streets.
• The mural park - the annual festival entries displayed together.
• Mount Roland - the quartzite ridge standing over the town.
• The main street - the country town centre the project was meant to save.

When to go

October to April for comfortable weather; the mural festival falls in autumn, usually around March or April. Winter is cold with the mountain often snow-dusted. Murals are visible year-round at any hour.

Practical notes

The murals vary considerably in quality and some have faded. The town is small and a visit takes an hour or two. Mount Roland's summit walk is steep and takes most of a day, not a casual add-on.

Nearby

Devonport and the ferry terminal lie north; Cradle Mountain is southwest.

Key facts