Outback NSW mining drums transformed into street art canvases in Lightning Ridge project

The vast flat plains of outback NSW are not normally associated with the explosive visuals of street art covering Melbourne's laneways.

But acclaimed artist John Murray's love of both places plans to change that.

He has started turning discarded mining equipment in a remote north-west NSW town into a canvas for street artists from across the country.

Known for his own colourful murals across regional New South Wales and Queensland, Murray invited street artists to Lightning Ridge to paint old "agitators" — the mixing drums once used by miners to sift soil in the search for opals.

"It's mainly set up just to promote street art," Murray said.

From mines to masterpiece

The agitators-cum-canvases were all donated for the project, Murray said.

The retired drum mixers are scattered around Lightning Ridge, mostly scrapped or left to rust in paddocks.

"The agitators are all old, abandoned mixers from the opal mines," Murray said.

Unlike most public art projects, the artists were not given a brief, and there was no committee sign-off.

"There are no gatekeepers on the project, so they can paint whatever they want," Murray said.

"It's an opportunity to do free-form street art."

So far, six of a planned 20 agitators have been painted by artists Manda Lane, Joanne Travis (N2O), James Wilson, Lukas Kasper, Oli Ruskid, and John and his wife Viki, a fellow artist.

Murray said a goal was to host a 50/50 split of women and men to support the growing cohort of female street artists.

"The women are awesome," he said.

"It used to be such a male-dominated field, and it's great to see more women coming through."

He and Viki have self-funded the effort, with his estimated final cost expected to be around $150,000.

Visiting artists are covered for around four nights' accommodation, meals, and $500 towards fuel costs.

They are also shown around the town and given some materials like the base coat and finish for their agitator.

Yabbies under a night sky

An artist who had already made the trip was Melbourne-based Lukas Kasper, who met Murray in 2019 and had been inspired by his work.

"[John] came down many years ago now and wanted to paint in the laneways," the 32-year-old said.

"We painted heaps all through the city, all through Melbourne, and he basically became one of my best mates."

The pair have painted together several times, including working on a water tower in the nearby town of Bourke where Kasper assisted Murray with two other artists, Bob Barrett and Brian Smith.

"So when he pitched the idea of coming back, I couldn't get there quick enough," he said.

For his agitator, Kasper drew inspiration from a mural he had just finished in the western NSW town of Coonamble, where he had painted a series of yabbies.

Murray told him local kids in Lightning Ridge often went yabbying in local dams and waterways.

"There's that little connection to the local space," Kasper said.

His finished design added a "galactic" flair, with a star-studded sky across the top — a nod to the outback sky he said he rarely got to see from Melbourne.

An open-air outback gallery

When finished, Murray envisioned the painted drums would be arranged as an open-air gallery in the region's renowned Three Mile opal field alongside the Opal Miners Hall of Fame.

Murray said visitors would be able to scan a QR code on each "agi" to learn about who donated the agitator and the artist who painted it.

"Nowhere else in the world would be able to do something like this," he said.

"There's just not that many agitators anywhere else in the world that could be given to something like this."