Way 79

Image source Norm Wilson

Artist: Eric Bolt Blyth

Asset Type: Mural

Year of Work: 1979

Location: Coalfields Highway, opposite Cockram Rd

Provenance: Shire of Collie

Description: This mural depicts the WAY 79 logo, designed by Norm Wilson. It was painted by Eric Bolt Blyth. WAY 79, also referred to as WAY 1979, marked the sesquicentennial (or 150 years) since the European colonisation of Western Australia.

The first WAY 79 event was a New Year's Eve concert on the Perth Esplanade. Ken Colbung, a Nyoongar leader, had been invited to perform, using the occasion to hand an eviction notice to the Governor of Western Australia, Sir Wallace Kyle. Ken Colbung served this notice to the European occupants of Western Australia, on behalf of Western Australia's Aboriginal people. The notice was pointedly in the same form as that used by the State Housing Commission for eviction notices to Aboriginal tenants.