First National Bairstow Kerr are immensely proud to have collaborated with local Menang Noongar artist, Tom Dimer, to create the first indigenous mural to prominently feature on York Street.

The mural is a truly amazing work of art.   As Tom explains below, it was his grandmother, Bella Kelly,  a renowned Indigenous artist, who sparked his interest in art.

I met with local Noongar educator, Larry Blight, and we chatted about the concept of a mural for our business's prominent wall, seen as you come down York Street.  We dabbled with a few ideas and Larry mentioned that York Street used to be a creek, created from the water run-off from Nyungar: Corndarup (Mount Clarence) and Kardarup (Mount Melville).

When Tom and I first met, I looked at examples of his artwork and it was a moody, shaded, white, grey and black landscape that immediately took my eye.  This is when Tom explained his love of landscape artworks and that he had been taught the technique by his grandmother.

We talked about ideas for the mural incorporating the creek that used to be York Street.  Tom's passion and enthusiasm was infectious right from the start.  It is truly an amazing achievement for Tom to be able to get out of my head, my early ideas and expand the vision wholly to what we have ended up with.

I talked with local living legend, John Barnesby, who confirmed that York Street had, in years gone by, been known as York Creek.  Eventually, everyone got fed up with York Creek flooding and it was filled in with rocks and then sealed.  To this day, there is water running under York Street.

There are so many more elements to the mural than it just being Tom's impression of what York Street would have looked like back in the day and the following words by Tom explain the numerous meanings in the mural.

Tom and I hope that, with the two of us coming together to work on this project, it encourages others to do the same.  Our community is so rich with stories to tell and who better to bring these stories to life that the wonderfully talented artists living in our community - the best storytellers in the world - known throughout history for their stories shown through art.

We also hope that this project encourages conversations - young people talking to their Elders about their family's history and stories of Albany and then sharing the stories and, hopefully, bringing them to life through art, so they are never lost.

I love the fact that Tom's young nephew, Callum Woods, assisted Tom with the mural and is now keen to learn more.

I hope you enjoy reading Tom's narrative below.

Eileen Bairstow.