Mosaic Pathway

The Mosaic Pathway Project was initially proposed in 2013 by a group of local artists called Tasmanian Regional Arts Kentish. (TRAK) This group, formed in 2005 was formerly known as The Working Art Space prior to its affiliation with Tasmanian Regional Arts. (TRA) 

For more information on the origins of our group please go to “Our History” page.

In 2013 TRAK applied for and obtained funding from the Tasmanian Community Fund (TCF) for a walkway to be constructed across King George V Park in Sheffield. The initial proposal for a mural Walk of Fame featuring murals from previous Mural Fests was defeated because the support poles could have disturbed the graves in the park. Instead it was decided to construct a Mosaic Pathway depicting images of local flora and fauna. 

The Pathway also contains the names, engraved in tiles along the pathway, of the 318 pioneers still buried in the park. The pathway also serves as a pleasant stroll between our Pioneer and Albert galleries.

The group first applied for funding from the Tasmanian Community Fund (TCF) in 2013 but following an initial knock-back, re-worked its application and was successful after a second attempt the following year.
Work on the Project began in late 2014 and the Pathway was officially opened two years later in October 2016.
Since its completion, the Pathway has received wide praise and acclaim from locals and visitors alike and was justly awarded Project of the Year at the Kentish Council’s 2016 Australia Day Awards ceremony.
The building of the Pathway was a collaborative effort between local artists and members of the community including a number of students from the Sheffield School, with Kentish Council also providing financial and other support.
In 2017 Tasmanian Regional Arts (TRA), of which TRAK was just one chapter, closed its doors. We then reformed as a sub-committee of Kentish Council under the trading name of Working Art Space Sheffield (WASS). We retained the strong support of the Kentish Council.
Additional artistic creations including an interpretive mural to complement the Tasmanian flora and fauna depicted in the 78 pathway mosaics have been added since the official opening.

In January 2019 Working Art Space Sheffield (WASS) was informed by The Tasmanian Community Fund (TCF) that it’s Mosaic Pathway had been chosen as one of only 13 projects to feature in a special promotional video being made to celebrate the distribution of One Hundred Million Dollars by the TCF to worthy community-based initiatives within this state.
This is a huge honour given that nearly three thousand projects have been the recipients of TCF financial support since its inception in 1999.
TCF also published an article about the Mosaic Pathway on their Website.

Click above for Special Promotional Video

History of King George V Park

This park was a Cemetery Reserve, designated ‘for burial of the dead’ when Sheffield was laid out as a town in late 1850s by James Dooley. The first burial took place in 1861 and the cemetery was closed in 1895 with burials permitted until 1900.
There were a total of 330 graves with many of the deceased under the age of one year. Headstones from this burial ground were removed and dispersed through the district, with several finding their way to the General Cemetery west of Sheffield.
The names of 318 of those interred for whom we still have records, have been acknowledged in the engraved paving built into the mosaic pathway traversing the park. (See panel on the right)
This Pioneer’s Cemetery was renamed King George V Park on the death of King George V in 1936.