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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

AN INTERESTING DRIVE

Hello everybody.
It's been very busy around here lately and I haven't had much time for writing posts or comments
but I have been visiting you all and keeping up with your comings and goings.
I'll try to visit and leave a comment soon
We all lead busy lives don't we?

One of the things we've been doing is traveling down to the Gold Coast to Sally's place where we are trying to finish off her renovation.
It's about 70k mainly along a very good, 5 lane highway.


The speed limit along most of the way is 110kph


When the highway passes through an area with houses, high walls have been built along the edge of the road to minimize the noise problem. 



Sometimes they are made of wood and steel........


and sometimes of concrete- plain


or marked with decorative patterns........

and occasionally these panels have been made into murals.



You can see the whole decorating process


starting off with the background ....


then the detail is added.

We came upon this huge one of tree dwelling Australian Native animals.


See how clever this bit is? The real trees growing behind the wall complete the picture.



and native flora too.


Further along there's a jungle scene



with palm trees growing behind it.


Another scene depicted sugarcane growing.
( car speeding past pretty fast here !! )

I really like them.
They're clever and interesting and, for me, change what could be an eyesore
into a work of art.


So, which do you prefer ?

This ....


or this ?


Cheers.

13 comments:

  1. Oh, my, I much prefer the beautifully painted ones! I'm afraid that we have a graffiti problem in some places where these have been put up in our area...painted, but a totally different effect that what you've posted here. These are lovely, and a great idea!

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  2. What a great idea.i love the animal ones.

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  3. The painted ones are beautiful! We have these walls along many of our interstates in populated areas. None like these though. We've seen some decorated ones out west but not in the east. The gangs would probably graffiti them in some less desirable areas.

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  4. The pictures!
    I wish we did that here. My favourites are the birds and animals in their habitats.
    Wonder what you would do if you had vastly different seasons. In winter you would have green tree pictures with a brown twiggy background.
    No, but they are lovely.
    I hope you have enjoyed yourselves down at the coast.

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  5. I do like the painted ones, they make a dreary road much more attractive.

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  6. Hmmm...third time I've tried to comment! Blogger just stops and sits with it's arms folded glaring at me each time. OK, slight exaggeration!

    ANYway, love the idea of murals on these concrete monstrosities!! Lovey!

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  7. Uh...now it's changing my spelling...or not. I meant to say, loveLy!

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  8. Oh definitely the painted murals! They look great. Makes the drive so much more interesting! Have fun! Ros

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  9. When we were up that way a few years ago I recall seeing those walls /barricades and thinking what agreat idea painting them was. I'd much prefer to see the landscapes/animals to the grey concrete.

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  10. I love the painted murals and what a lovely idea. So much more interesting that plain boring grey concrete. I'm thinking it must be fun for kids on a long drive to look forward to seeing them too.
    Anne xx

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  11. I think it is a shame we need them in the first place. Two things cause the noise. Speed and road surface. There is a road surface which is very quiet to drive on, but, like a lot of good ideas, it is expensive to lay.
    It is a shame, but that is life.

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  12. How cool is that.

    My friend, you take all the time you need. We want you and Tony to be good and read to blog from the English Countryside. It will be so much fun, just like France last year.

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