Tank Street ANZAC Memorial Mural

A new mural has been created by Adelaide based mural and graffiti artist Morris Green at 37 Tank Street, Gladstone. 

Morris is an award winning muralist, with 20 years experience specialising in aerosol art and realism mural design. His artworks stay true to his teenage years of exploring the city in the dark with a spray can. Morris creates artwork using only aerosol paints, no stencils, all freehand graffiti style works that depict photo realism. 

From 15-23 September 2025 the car park was transformed into a place of memory that connects Gladstone’s past to the present with dignity, pride, and respect.

This design will not only honour local WWI veteran Samuel Streeter, but invites reflection on the broader sacrifices of regional Queenslanders.

ARTIST STATEMENT

At the centre of the work stands the haunting gaze of a young soldier, eyes lost in what has become known as the “1000-yard stare.” It reflects the trauma and quiet resilience of those who served, embodying the psychological scars of war that often went unseen.

The surrounding imagery tells of Gladstone’s deep wartime connection. Troopships departed from Brisbane Harbour and the Gladstone Wharf used for export. Many never returned. Alongside them, hundreds of horses sent into service, never to come home. Their silhouettes represent both loyalty and loss, a powerful reminder of the lives changed by war.

The Gallipoli campaign is referenced through archival textures, illustrating one of Australia’s most defining and devastating military chapters. The landing boats, trench lines, and red poppies provide a visual language of remembrance and national identity.

CONCEPT

This mural was created as part of Gladstone Regional Councils Tank Street Beautification Project, to draw attention to and compliment ANZAC Park and the RSL and act as the beginning to the Goondoon Street Beautification Project

The brief was to create a public artwork that was meaningful and rooted in Gladstone Region’s history, based around local community social history and GRAGM collections. It needed to be a professional and eye-catching artwork/mural, communicating to the onlooker an important era in the Gladstone Region’s history.

The ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Spirit was born out of the formidable force of the ANZACs during the campaign in the Gallipoli Peninsula, Türkiye (1915 – 1916). This first major public artwork in the project will focus on the First World War (1914-1918) where it all began and Gladstone’s part in it, based around family histories and Gladstone’s contribution to the conflict.

The idea is to begin with this mural, then to commission further public artworks telling Gladstone’s story along Goondoon Street ending at the harbour.

It's important to tell the story of the people and the horses. The records and Roll of Honour Town of Gladstone and Shire of Calliope: The Great War 1914-1919, housed in GRAGM, show 364 men and boys from the region enlisting to fight in the First World War. Horses were commandeered, transported and held in pens at the harbour, where they were loaded onto ships for Brisbane, Egypt and then Europe.

Samuel Streeter (18.10.1894 – 03.05.1917) was one such enlistee. He and his two brothers enlisted and Samuel never returned, losing his life on the battlefield of Bullecourt, France. Samual’s story was similar to so many ANZACs who lost their lives for our freedom.

The photographic archive in the GRAGM holds (by kind donation from the Streeter family) a photograph of Samuel, photographs of the holding pens for the horses on the harbour and the transport boats, as well as some photographs of local men in their regimental dress astride horses.

Also important is raising awareness around the sacrifice of the animals requisitioned for the war effort, and for the Gladstone region, that was predominantly horses, which had a huge impact on local families, especially as their husband sand sons were gone too.