“Picture it: we’re a little cafe tucked away in Jan Juc, and Jan Juc is just a little suburb tucked away in the corner of a little coastal town that is tucked away in the corner of Australia. But there’s more to it than that, we can be more.”
Bird Rock Cafe owner Paul Tyler knows his cafe is tucked away, but with a collaborative effort with Powerhouse Geelong and a whole lot of paint, the venue, the lookout and Jan Juc is now well worthy of becoming a popular tourist destination.
Tyler, a Jan Juc resident for seven years, was inspired to paint the outside of the seaside cafe after noticing the lack of culture and colour compared to most overseas beach destinations.
“We live here. I look at it and I think: you’re at the beach, at a restaurant and beach bar, and it’s bizarre how our culture is so keyed – everything is painted grey, or brown or tan. If you travel, you see places at the beach that are all bright and colourful and amazing, but then you go and look at where you live,” Tyler says.
“So, I was like well we need to paint, and we might as well do it all in graffiti and street art, a bit like the Melbourne art culture. I want to give a reason for people to come to the area because it’s such a beautiful place, with the lookout and the beaches, there’s a panoramic view but not many people know of it. And now, it’s bright, it’s happy and it’s vibrant.”
With four local artists, 260 litres of paint and the curator of Powerhouse Geelong Ian Ballis working on the project, the artwork surrounding the outside of the cafe has brought the essence of surfing culture back into the small coastal town, and has since engaged the community and attracted a lot of attention.
“Everyone’s had a look at it. More people have been coming here, it has reactivated the space and everyone that walked past has a smile on their face, which is great from a therapeutic perspective,” says Ballis. “And those things are free. We are happy to do it, and for people to enjoy it is just a bonus.
“The area and the atmosphere is very sombre and it’s not very engaging, but in pretty much two days, we activated a whole area which just leads on to more community use, more patronage and better vibes around the place.”
As a reflection of the iconic surf beach and surf town, the artwork includes a day of the dead woman, a dog, a bird, a psychedelic mural of spirals and even a token ‘#birdrockcafe’ sketched on the wall.
While the outside is definitely worth having a look at, the interior complements the artwork’s theme with a Southern, Mexican and Australian fusion style, sporting coloured walls and booths, delicate hand-painted skirting boards, and a collection of art and memorabilia.
Running the cafe for the past 18 months, Tyler has since restored most of the building, while trying his best to keep the essence of the venue – that been a restaurant and bar at the beach. Channelling a unique surfing culture, the cafe has introduced specialised themes (including steak nights and Mexican nights) in hopes of changing the demographic to become a more inclusive place to go for locals and tourists alike. Pair one of these great feeds with a BirdRock Ale and you now have some first-rate plans for the night.
The artwork at Bird Rock will evolve and continue as an ongoing project, with plans to add some aboriginal artwork and eventually enhance the whole town to create a tourist destination for this part of Victoria.
“We are not about graffiti, we are not about political, or sexist motives. It’s all just having a bit of fun with a bit of colour on the wall. We want to just develop different projects around town to the point where there is 50 different areas of Torquay to look at street art, hopefully becoming a tourist attraction,” Ballis says.
We will just have to wait and see, but for now we at Forte are digging this new vibe to Jan Juc.
Bird Rock cafe is located at 1 Stuart Ave, Jan Juc.
Written by Talia Rinaldo
Images [except main image] from Bird Rock Facebook.
