THE freshly painted mural above the bar at The Dromedary Hotel depicts the town’s gold mining history in great detail.
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Miners hose down ravines with high-pressure hoses powered by water wheels, while cables run gear through the workings, and a man on horseback surveying the scene is meant to be one of the Bate brothers.
It is the work of artist Warren Lurie who just moved to Narooma from Canberra.
“It’s based on the history of the town which itself is based on gold mining,” he said.
After being commissioned by publicans Mick and Maz Youlten, Warren started his research online but was surprised there was not much on the rich gold mining history in the tourism and information websites about Tilba.
Instead he hit pay dirt when he started searching the Mount Dromedary Mining Company, including images on which he based his main front-facing panel.
The side panels meanwhile depict more natural rainforest scenes and he has now been asked by the Youltens to paint more forest scenes on some of the walls of the bar.
The research and then painting using acrylic paints took several weeks and he hopes the publicity from this project will land him some more commissions and projects around the area.
A tattoo artist by trade who has travelled far and wide on ink, now hopes he can establish himself as an artist in the Narooma area and his latest series involves classic cars and realistic local landscapes.