TTTT – Outback Way Outdoor Gallery, NT

Welcome to FRRR’s Tackling Tough Times Together podcast – about how people in remote, rural and regional Australia helped one another pull through the harshest droughts in living memory.

In this episode, we find out how an Outback Gallery featuring artworks on billboards has transformed communities along the isolated Plenty Highway.

We chat to community leaders about the challenges they faced, how they responded, what impact their project had and the legacy it left. They share their stories and lessons learnt, as we all learn how to cope with an increasingly dry climate.

For more than a decade Melanie Forbes dreamed of what it would be like to drive vast remote highways through Australia’s outback and see a series of stunning billboard artworks along the way.

But it took devastating bushfires and drought to hit the region for the artist to bring that dream to a reality.

Now General Manager of the Outback Highway Development Council, and director of the Outdoor Billboard Gallery, Mel oversees the creation of paintings that dot the landscape around the highway.

Fourteen double-sided billboards now punctuate a 110 kilometre stretch of the Plenty Highway, around 170kms east of Alice Springs, in what Mel hopes is just the beginning of even more outback galleries and income for creatives in her region, across the extensive Outback Way.

This project was funded by FRRR – the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal– thanks to partnerships with philanthropy, government and business, and the generosity of individuals, all of whom share the vision of a vibrant, resilient, sustainable and empowered rural Australia.

FRRR acknowledges the Dja Dja Wurrung people as the Traditional Custodians of Jaara country at Bendigo, where the organisation is headquartered. We also acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations around this vast country, and pay respect to their Elders past and present, and to the continuation of the custodial, cultural and educational practices of Australia’s First Peoples.

GET IN TOUCH
The Tackling Tough Times Together podcast was produced for FRRR, the only charity focussed on building the social and economic strength of remote, rural and regional Australia. It was funded in partnership with the Australian government.

For further information on anything shared in this podcast, or if you have a project and would like to apply for funding, or you would like to support these kinds of projects, head to www.frrr.org.au or call 1800 170 020.

CREDITS
Host: Nance Haxton
Production Assistance: Michael Adams
Interviewee: Melanie Forbes, Outback Billboard Gallery Director

RESOURCES
FRRR – www.frrr.org.au
Outback Billboard – https://outbackway.gallery/
Outback Highway Development Council – https://www.outbackway.org.au/