Designed by Kapunda mural artist Danny Menzel, the mural was hand painted directly onto the wall over a two-year period, by Danny and twelve volunteers who spent over 500 hours assisting with the painting.
The mural was completed in 2020, funded substantially by local donations to KMTP.
THIS MURAL WON THE NATIONAL AUSTRALIAN STREET ART “BEST EXERNAL WALL MURAL” AWARD in 2021.
The area to the right of the roller door depicts the Lord Palmerston Hotel and J. Harden Confectionery that were situated on the Main and Lucas Street corner (facing Main Street). Around 1900 the building became Kapunda’s Coffee Palace, later a car service garage and then demolished in 1968. Also shown is store owner Robert Brewster (as photographed in 1871) holding the horse, and his family. (Brewster’s Store was located cnr Main and Tod Sts., further north on the opposite side of Main St.)
To the left of the roller door is a depiction of the working Kapunda Copper mine, Australia’s first commercially successful copper mine, established in 1844. The scene was recreated using references from old photographs and paintings by colonial artists George Fife Angas and S.T. Gill.
The extreme left of the mural features portraits of several significant founding identities Dr Blood, the mine’s first doctor and later first Mayor of Kapunda; Capt. Charles Bagot and Francis Dutton who separately discovered copper in the area and later co-managed the Kapunda until Bagot bought out Dutton’s share and controlled the mine until 1857. Dutton floated a company in London that worked the mine until 1877 when it became unprofitable. The next portrait is of William Oldham who held several notable positions in the town and is considered by many to be ‘the father of Kapunda’.
