Emus in Lightning Ridge, a poet in Gunnedah, a legendary musician in Walgett, and a begoggled flying fish in Newcastle are among the public artworks vying for the ultimate national street art crown.
The Street Art Awards 2021 finalists have been announced, celebrating the great, the eye-catching and the uniquely Australian of outdoor murals and installations that draw travellers to mostly regional towns.
Gunnedah's silo mural dedicated to the memory of iconic poet Dorothea Mackellar, completed in November, is the only artwork in NSW to be selected as a finalist in two categories.
The 29 metre-high depiction of Mackellar alongside the famous second verse of her poem 'My Country' on the Gunnedah Maize Mill is a contender in both Best Mega Mural and Best Rural Art categories.
Lightning Ridge, in the state's north-west, is hoping flightless birds will get it over the line. Artist John Murray's '2 Kool for Skool' mural in the town centre features a line-up of anthropomorphic emus alongside the handprints of dozens of local children.
Outside the opal mining town, Mr Murray's 'Stanley the Big Bird' metal sculpture stands 18 metres tall and bursts forth from a rusted VW beetle.
Over east on the mid-north coast, cartoonist David Bromley's Urunga mural portraying shopfronts dating back to the early 1900s is eerily realistic and up for the Best External Mural gong at the Awards.
A larger-than-life depiction of the late and beloved Aboriginal musician Jimmy Little on the Walgett water tower is also in the running for an award, while Newcastle's Chalk the Walk and the Un[contained] urban arts festival in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah are both finalists in the Best Street Art Festival category.
In Gunnedah, national recognition would be a boon for the locals - and Melbourne-based artist Khosnaran Khurelbaatar, known as Heesco - who worked so hard to bring the project to life despite COVID-19 lockdowns and disruptions, Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society president Philippa Murray said.
"It would be a tremendous achievement and great recognition of the many hours of volunteer work by the community," she said.
Ms Murray said visitors were already flocking to see the mural, which was completed in November 2021.
"You will see cars just piling up - vans, trailers. People just love it," she said. The maize mill is just a stone's throw from 'Kurrumbede', once a Mackellar family property.
Street Art Awards organisers hope the event attracts visitors to the towns which have invested in public art.
"The awards inform travellers about the magnificent array of publicly-accessible art that can be found in every corner of the country and the communities that have invested in these attractions because they're keen to welcome visitors," awards director Liz River said in a statement.
Winners across seven categories nationally will be announced in an online ceremony on March 4.
