Old Reynella mural gives nod to railroad past

The Noarlunga Model Railroaders Inc. building in Old Reynella has been transformed with the addition of an eye-popping mural on both the northern and western wall.

After council conducted community engagement around a mural that reflected the town’s railroad history, funding was made available to engage an artist to work with the model railroaders on what images would best depict the Willunga train line and the locomotives that used it.

Thomas Readett, a proud Ngarrindjeri/Arrernte artist was chosen to create the mural and his first challenge was painting on the corrugated tin walls of the model railroaders’ building.

“I initially did mock-ups using Photoshop based on images provided by the model railroaders and conversations I had with them.

They loved the mock-ups so I painted them. The corrugated tin walls were a very challenging surface to paint on, which made it harder, but I had a lot of fun working on the murals and working with those legends.

My art is a black and white realistic approach. My style is to exaggerate tonal contrast to breathe new feeling into an image”, Thomas said.

President of the Noarlunga Model Railroaders Inc, Denis Woolard shed more light on what the mural images depict.

“The mural on the northern wall of the building is Locomotive Number 700 making its last trip to Willunga on 13 August 1967 crossing the Onkaparinga River at Noarlunga. The mural on the western wall depicts Reynella Station looking south in the 1960’s.

Members of the Noarlunga Model Railway Club were very pleased with the completed project, especially as Locomotive Number 700 is the feature image of our club logo” Denis said.

A second mural at Old Reynella Bus Interchange is underway and you can find out more about its progress on council’s Your Say website page.