Melbourne Graffiti – a history

by Mark Holsworth (MSF member)

All the elements to make Melbourne’s current graffiti scene were present in the 1980s but they didn’t come together until 15 years later. This is due to the changing use of the city. Melbourne transformed from an empty urban core full of offices and factories in the 1970s and 80s to an urban core full of apartments, bars and cafés in the 1990s and 21st Century.
Graffiti and street art are part of a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) culture that includes zines, music bands, raves, art parties and the internet. A D.I.Y. culture is a culture that is not inherited by tradition. It is not imported and is not purchased off the shelf. The culture requires some assembly (cut and paste culture) and interactive participation. It is not really a culture, but a proto-culture, a mutant culture.

1970s – graffiti used by political groups, rock bands for publicity and the odd painted slogans like: “Punks can’t spell capachino”, “Bite the Wax Tadpole”, or “Nuclear families have fallout too.”  Simon Chapman (later to be Professor in Sydney's School of Public Health) formed Movement Opposed to the Promotion of Unhealthy Products (Mop Up). At Mop Up very first meeting, an even-more radical fringe split away to form the billboard-defacing Buga-Up.

1980s – Melbourne exposed to and develops its own hip-hop culture, including aerosol graffiti. Hip Hop was regarded as American and Australia has a strong popular hatred of things American.

1984 – Gallery owner John Buckley invited Keith Haring to Melbourne. This is why there is a Haring stencil by the door of his gallery in Albert St. Richmond). Haring also painted the NGV’s famous water wall, the wall on the Collingwood Technical College (with its now fading but still visible iconic Haring figures riding a giant centipede is the only surviving Haring wall in Melbourne still visible to the public) and another piece at a school in Toorak.

1985 - Publicity for Dogs in Space film (starring Michael Hutchins) used stencil graffiti (the first stencils that I saw on Melbourne streets but some little punk bands had used them prior).

1990s – RATS Recreational Arts Team along with various bands and raves using sticker and posters to promote events. At the raves temporary sculptural installations were created. Growing acceptance of hip-hop as not just an American style/culture. Inner urban slum areas are gentrified. Bars and cafes follow the artists who made the area attractive with raves, art galleries and other entertainment.

1999 & on - stencil work increases, specifically the stencils by Civil around Richmond Station. Civil’s simple single color stencils with their elegant design and equally elegant political messages are still amongst my favorite street art. HaHa does stencils of Australian icons like Ned Kelly, Don Bradman etc. in a conscious political move to make stencil art more popular.

2003 -  Ghostpatrol, a notable Melbourne street artist, believes that the high point for Melbourne street art was in 2003 and that since then it has been in decline for a number of reasons, including the large amount of attention that it received. This attention included numerous photographs for everything from private collections, online collections, advertising, wedding and publications.

2004 – 1st Melbourne Stencil Festival

2005 - street art was moving off the street and into the galleries. Several books published Melbourne street art: Jake Smallman & Carl Nyman Stencil Graffiti Capital Melbourne (Mark Batty Publisher 2005) and Matthew Lunn’s Street Art Uncut. And along with the books came TV documentaries and more critical attention.

2006 -  galleries specializing in (or regularly exhibiting) street art were starting to emerge: Until Never (2006) and Per Square Metre (2006)

2007 – more galleries specializing in (or regularly exhibiting) street art opened: Artholes (for about a year in 2007 was street art orientate) and 696.

2008 - Famous When Dead (2008).