Council & Business
8 July, 2025
Guesses invited once again
A decade-on locals are asked again: Who are the three well known Australians in the painting?
Travelling the country since 1983, and having visited the Central Goldfields in 2015, Three Well-Known Australians is an abstract painting by Martin Shaw.
Travelling the country for over 40 years, the painting is a growing social history of who Australians think the three figures are.
The exhibition, which is in Maryborough’s Visitor Centre until the end of July, invites attendees to take part in this decades-long tradition.
Visitor services team leader Lee Duffin was excited to see the artwork return after it was delayed during COVID.
“It’s an intriguing little piece of local social history because of the entries that are here from 10 years ago,” she said.
Alongside some of the 240 guesses from well-known Australians is a book of guesses from its first local visit.
Among its pages are names like Ned Kelly, Cathy Freeman, and Andrew Peacock.
Mr Shaw told The Guardian in 2019 that for as long as Australians are making guesses it’ll offer insight into the state of the country.
“These yearbooks form a portrait of Australia — what people in 1983 thought is going to be different to what people think in a 100 years’ time,” he said.
It’s that comparison Ms Duffin is excited to see locally — what Australians will be at the front of local minds.
“Who knows, it might come back again in another 20 years and you’re descendents or other family members who were young now might grow up and guess,” she said.
While there have only been a handful of guesses so far, Ms Duffin said those who have come across the artwork enjoyed taking part.
“They’re surprised to find it here in the Visitor Centre at the historic station. That’s a bit of a surprise. They actually have embraced it as a bit of fun,” she said.
“Everyone’s welcome to come and have a look.”
The free exhibition will be alongside the Visitor Centre’s other attractions including a scale that prices items as if they were made of gold and an animated video that explores local Indigenous and gold rush history.