Moooving Art Cows is an ever changing open air art exhibition spread out through the Shepparton region.
The main location is at Monash Park, surrounded by High Street (Midland Highway), Welsford Street, and Fryers Street. There are several locations where the colourful Moooving Art bovines can be found.
A few can be found at the Shepparton Visitor Centre in Nixon Street, the Council Offices at 90 Welsford Street, along Fryers Street, and along Wyndham Street.
Individual cows can be found at various places also, including the Shepparton Police Station, Shepparton Law Courts, Shepparton Library, Kidstown, among others.
The cows on display change from time to time and as the name might suggest, they mooove around, including cows that are put “out to pasture” for repairs or makeovers. A list of the 90-odd cows could be included but it may become outdated as cows are moved and changed.
A list of the current locations is updated every now and then at the visitshepparton.com.au Meet The Herd website page.
Some of the cows could be repurposed easily but many would not be able to be significantly changed. The My Little Pony themed cow, called My Little Cow gets new colours or designs but is always a little pony sized cow with little pony-like squat legs.
I can’t imagine there is too much that can be done too drastically change the Moomaid which has a mermaid’s tail. Mooosaurus with the stegosaurus armour plates along its back would be a difficult alteration also.
Some are simply just cows, like the black and white country cow. Others that are more artfully creative, like the Earth Cow or the Ned Kelly inspired Wanted Dead or Alive Cow, many could be repurposed into a new and fresh design from time to time.
It started with a successful Christmas campaign in 1999 with the Merry Moos. The success of the campaign gave rise to a more permanent and expanded concept.
The Moooving Art exhibition started in 2000 with the Shepparton City Council creating the life-sized cows for emerging artists to paint and put on public display for visitors and the local community to enjoy.
Shepperton’s heritage is in the dairy industry, the region producing a large portion of Australia’s dairy exports. The art display pays homage to the dairy industry and is an innovative way to put the dairy industry on show for passing tourists.
To get there:
From Shepparton Visitor Centre, head west along Dixon St (other side from the visitor centre) and take the first left onto Welsford St. Follow Welsford St for 230m and take the first right onto Fryers St. Head immediately to the left side of Fryers St to pull into the rest area with a few parking spots for the park with Moooving Art cows.
If there is no parking, continue on and turn left, there is another rest area with similar parking provisions. If there is no parking available, the park is close to the city centre in easy walking distance.