The Elephant in the Wheatbelt

Artist Samantha Hughes and her dad Dennis

Shire of Corrigan, Western Australia (WA) is talking loudly about the ‘elephant in the room’ in an effort to save lives on local roads.

The Elephant in the Wheatbelt is a life-sized African elephant sculpture made from crashed cars. It was commissioned by RAC WA in 2015 as part of a five year road safety campaign, aiming to highlight the consistently high road fatalities and serious injuries rate in the Wheatbelt region of WA.

Road trauma is the ‘elephant in the room’ and to break this silence, the Elephant in the Wheatbelt travels around the region, raising awareness about the devastating impact of road trauma and promoting road safety messages to Wheatbelt residents of all ages.

The Corrigin Community Resource Centre applied to be part of the Elephant in the Wheatbelt campaign, and was selected as one of six Wheatbelt communities to receive a professionally painted mural.

Each mural is very individual and depicts a different road safety message which acts as a reminder to keep road safety at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Recently the RAC Elephant visited Corrigin, to oversee the mural installation. Local children were invited to help professional artist, Samantha Hughes with the painting of the colourful new mural.