The Hon. Beverley McArthur, Member for Western Victoria, Media Release, 12 February 2026

Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur has called on the Minister for Planning to direct the Department of Transport and Planning to remove hoarding obscuring Harold Freedman’s Geelong Regional History mosaic mural at 30 Little Malop Street.

Raising the matter in Parliament, Mrs McArthur said the significant public artwork, commissioned by the State of Victoria in 1977, had been rendered inaccessible to the public without justification.

“This mural is not a minor decorative feature,” Mrs McArthur said.

“It is a heritage-listed public artwork depicting the changing lifestyle of the region’s people and key moments in Victoria’s early history.”

The mural, consisting of more than one million tiles set against a gold background, portrays Indigenous life, the arrival of settler ships, early agriculture and explorers rendered in portraiture realism. 

Mrs McArthur said the artwork is listed by both the National Trust and the Victorian Heritage Register for its historical importance.

“Heritage protection exists precisely to stop each generation from erasing the past because it makes a few people uncomfortable,” she said.

Harold Freedman, appointed Victoria’s first and only State Artist in 1972, was an official war artist during World War II, a respected teacher at RMIT and a firm believer that art should be accessible to ordinary Australians.

Freedman’s family discovered last year that the mural had been covered, initially with reference to building works. When the family sought clarification, they were reportedly advised the decision was influenced by concerns raised by some Indigenous visitors and staff.

Mrs McArthur said the public response did not support permanently concealing the artwork.

“A Geelong Advertiser poll asked whether any aspect of the mural was disrespectful. Ninety-eight per cent of 1,390 respondents said no,” (as of 3 February) she said.

“The public does not want this mural hidden. They see it as their history.

“When his children and grandchildren came to Geelong to see a great Australian artwork created by a man who loved this country, they were confronted not by history but by a blank sheet.

“That should trouble every one of us.

“Restore the mural. Restore our history. Restore Australian pride.”

The Freedman family has initiated a formal petition to the Parliament of Victoria calling for the mural’s immediate return to unimpeded public display and it is currently open:
https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/petitions/return-harold-freedmans-geelong-regional-history-mosaic-mural-to-public-display