By Ellen Anderson.
THE restored Carranballac State School (1841-1978) mural was unveiled last weekend at the Carranballac Hall.
Elaine Anderson (Graham), a former student of the former school on the Glenelg Highway, spearheaded the reconstruction of the 1964 mural, which had been created by students to commemorate the school's 50th anniversary.
Years of wear and tear had left the piece in desperate need of repair.
Past students, teachers, and locals gathered at Carranballac Hall for the unveiling, including Carranballac’s oldest living former student, Harry Waldron, and Mary Forsyth, the original creator of the mural and a former teacher at the school.
After taking a mosaic class with her daughter, Elaine said something triggered in her mind.
“After seeing the state the mural was in, I wanted to see it restored. My response was that looks like a project in need of some to organise it.”
"I sought advice about restoring it and contacted mosaic artists around Ballarat. Those mosaic artists said it was beyond restoration."
A determined Elaine decided to take on the project herself, piecing together much of the mural with remaining pieces.
“I’ve got time I’ve got space, so me not volunteering turned into me volunteering.”
"This is one of the few objects from Carranballac State School that still exists, and people can see it was and still is worth preserving,” she said.
The community also participated in a working bee to complete the piece.
“We had a working bee to complete the background with the pebbles, I wanted people to have to opportunity to put stones on there from their farms or gardens or places that were significant to them because some of the original stones had broken and crumbled.”
Mary Forsyth, who led the creation of the original mural in 1964 with her students, praised Elaine's efforts.
"It's amazing. She's done an amazing job."
Mary recalled the process of creating the mural, with the students contributions of materials like glass bottles and crockery.
“Every one of the kids brought something from home and we made sure we smashed things up so we had something from each of the children,” she said.
“I took the group of the older boys down to Lake Bolac and we collected pebbles along the lake, nowadays you couldn't do anything like that.”
“I thank Elaine for rescuing it,” Mary said.
The restoration project was made possible with a grant from the Beaufort Community Bank.