On the sides of buildings and floors of car parks across Darwin, huge murals are taking shape.
From a giant skeleton sprawled across the ground to a crocodile rising from the wall of an apartment block, they're all part of the Darwin Street Art Festival, an annual event which transforms disused spaces into vibrant works of art in the Northern Territory's capital.
The event started in 2017 to help activate Darwin during an economic slump following the construction of major gas project Inpex. Today it's hard to find a street in the CBD without a brightly coloured mural first created as part of the festival.
"We've got Darwin's stories on these walls, so you get a sense of some of Darwin's history and what Darwin's about just by looking at these murals," said festival director David Collins.
"We've turned all our streets into a gallery."
'Big, blank' spaces become vibrant precincts
Six years ago, before the festival began, Darwin's streets looked very different.
In Mr Collins' words, while there were plenty of shops and restaurants, "it wasn't much to look at".
"The architecture, most of it was pretty ordinary," he said.
But those "big, blank walls everywhere" also spelled opportunity.
They inspired Mr Collins to develop a locally-run event promoting the creation of "world-class" street art, with support from the NT government.
Since then, the festival's artworks have changed the face of Darwin and the way people use the city.
"I've had people tell me that they will walk different ways each day because they want to see a different mural," Mr Collins said.
"That all helps trade... if you're going to check out the art, you end up exploring new parts of Darwin, finding new things.
The art has also become another attraction for the tourists who flock to Darwin each dry season.
"When people come to Darwin now, they often come and do Litchfield, Kakadu and the street art – it's become one of the things that you always do," Mr Collins said.
Largest artwork to date emerges from empty car park
In a large parking lot situated in a quiet corner of the CBD, Kitt Bennett is hard at work painting Darwin's largest piece of street art to date.
Once complete, it will show a 1500 square metre skeleton permanently lying under the hot territory sun, complete with board shorts and a Hawaiian T-shirt.
"I like … when you're looking at something in person and it looks so big, and then you look at the [picture] from above and you get this overview effect, where all of a sudden you feel small, and you kind of see where we all sit within the earth and what we are," Mr Bennett said.
"We're these creatures in our environments, and we don't really get the full picture all the time, so I'm trying to break people out of that point of view and see the bigger picture."
The former animation illustrator, who is from the street art hotspot of Melbourne, said he was impressed at the quality of street art in Darwin.
"I'm amazed by some of the walls that have popped up there over the last couple of festivals. There's a lot of good stuff happening here," he said.
Local artists part of transformation
Born and raised Darwin resident Shona Lee Griffen has seen the difference street art has made to her city firsthand.
"[Local street art precinct] Austin Lane, before … it was a back alleyway that no one really used, and now it's so beautiful and people like to go there all the time to see the new artwork that's there," she said.
Ms Griffen, a graphic designer, is taking part in the festival for the first time this year, in partnership with well-known Darwin street artist Miss Polly.
Together, they're painting a mural paying tribute to the late wife of a nearby shop owner, creating a work they hope will one day help turn the quiet laneway into a bustling precinct.
"Before the artwork, there wasn't really any reason to go down there, because it's the back end of all the stores," she said.
"We're adding more pieces in there to make the laneway a really beautiful place to walk through."
Darwin's stories on display
This year's festival, which will finish on Monday after running for several weeks, will add about a dozen new works to the Darwin CBD and surrounding suburbs.
They''ll be painted by about 16 artists, more than half of whom are locals.
Ater an expansion to the suburbs in 2021, this year's event will also include smaller murals on temporary walls, giving emerging artists a chance to get involved.
While blank walls are becoming harder to find these days, Mr Collins said he was confident the festival would continue for some time to come.
"We've picked all the low-hanging fruit, so a lot of the walls that are left are going to be tricky to get to. But we will get to them," he said.
"And [after] maybe 10 years we say goodbye to some of these older murals and freshen them up again."
