Sheffield is famous for it's murals, the first of which was painted in the 1980's, and now they have an international mural festival every April. Around the town there are permanent murals on the side of buildings, and the festival ones are on boards in the park and stay for a year, until the next competition.
Our first stop was to the Blacksmith Cafe for coffee and cake, and it was great - really quirky and interesting decorations as you can see from below.
I haven't included a picture of a toilet for a while, but thought this one was well worth it - how many toilets smile at you when you lift the lid. Also, all over the walls were written funny little quotes, the example is one that really made me chuckle.
Here's just a small selection of the temporary murals from the park - the artists are very talented people. In the third one down you'll notice that Crumble is trying to get into the picture on the left hand side.
Imagine Crumbles delight when he found this house that seemed made for devils - it's actually what they use for the voting for the murals when the festival is on, as there is always a peoples choice award.
Below is a directions sign that sits in front of the Sheffield tourist information centre - all of the places on the sign exist in Tasmania. That's right we do have a Promised Land and a place called No Where Else - down south we even have a town called Bagdad (spelt slightly differently).
Mural on one of the buildings...
Mount Roland which looms over the town - I had to take this slightly odd view as until this the top had been covered with cloud.
It's definitely a wacky place, with lots of the shop owners getting into the spirit of the town - the shop below was a second hand shop which has been decorated really originally - if you look closely you can see two baby dolls sitting in the gutter.
This guitar was for sale in the above shop, and the sign on it really amused us.
These lovely mosaic posts and planters were outside the world of marbles shop - it must have taken someone with a lot of patience to do this.
Love this building and how much nature has taken over - making it even more special was the beautiful pink door.
Beautiful climbing roses over a garden entry.....
A few more of the permanent murals that are dotted around the town - some are just depicting Australiana and what it means to be Tasmanian, and others depict stories from Sheffield's past. It may give you an idea of why a small town that has under 2,000 residents has over 200,000 visitors a year.
This final picture is of someone's mailbox - we've seen lots of "interesting" mailboxes, so we're going to include a few in the coming blogs to show you how off the wall us Tasmanians can be.
Hope you've enjoyed this visit to Sheffield, and if you're ever in Tasmania make sure you include it in your itinerary.
Until next time, be good, stay safe, and make sure that you eat cake this week.
Pamela & Ken
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