Mali in the City 1

Night and Day by Graeme Base 

Mali turns the City Pink by Siemens

This is a non-card blog. I was obsessed with taking photos of these beautiful elephant sculptures. Be warned, this is very photo-heavy!

To celebrate 150 years, Zoos Victoria commissioned 50 fibreglass life size replicas of the Zoo's elephant Mali to be painted by various artists. These sculptures were placed at various locations in Melbourne CBD for a period of 5 weeks. There was even an App to help you locate all these elephants. When they were installed, I noticed them on the way to work and wondered what it was about. Then my sister posted some photos of some more that she came across near her work in the city. It has been fun for me locating all the elephants as they were all located at various tourist points in the city. Some of them were within walking distance from work so I was able to go out to find some of them during my lunch hour. I have finally completed photographing all 50 of them! They were so beautiful, they need to be shared. I have taken all of them with my iPhone4s and uploaded them to Instagram and linked them to my twitter accounts. Some of them have been taken with my Sony NEX3 and Nikon D70s cameras. As there were a lot of photos, they will be split over two postings - the second link is here. Be warned, there are a lot of photos here, I could not leave some of them out as they all deserve to be shown. Some may have two photos as the artists have painted them differently on both sides. I actually had to re-visit some of them to capture better photos. My first 26 Mali's were located in the city and in the beautiful gardens near the city. Some of my favourites in this lot includes Rusty in Chinatown, Protector of all Animals and Forest rides on elephant's back. Enjoy!

City in Mali by Ralf Kempken sponsored by Lite n' Easy 

Rusty Mali by Russ Brebner sponsored by Cookers 

Endangered Aisa by Kelly Just sponsored by City of Melbourne 

 Mali, Protector of all Animals by Deb Halpern sponsored 

by Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation 

 Neo Composite by Jacqueline Gwynne sponsored by 
The Sofitel 

Helmeted Honeyeaters Habitat? by Andrea Carydias 
sponsored by Intercontinental Hotel Group 

Harmony by Zara McKenzie sponsored by 
Melbourne Marriott Hotel

Ranee by Gillian Forbes sponsored by Karcher

Ranee at Night

Baroque Baby by Robert Hague sponsored by ANZ 

Enceladus by David Ghostpatrol sponsored by 

Carter Digital

Mali's Winter Wonderland by Pat Minahan
sponsored by Buller Ski Lifts

Prayer for Protection by Blaze Warrender
sponsored by Patagonia 

Lotus by Kelly Spencer sponsored by 
Kingston Development

Jimbo by Janie Fearon sponsored by
Boston Consulting Group 

Bromley One by David Bromley sponsored
by LinFox

Same Same by Max Blackmore sponsored
by Places Victoria 

Woolly Mali by Mini Goss sponsored by
Channel Ten and The Project 

Shared Path by William Aigner sponsored by
Places Victoria 

In the Gardens 
These beauties were found in some of the gardens around the city, Treasury Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens and the Botanical Gardens.

Spot by Steve Monk sponsored by
Richmond Football Club 

Jingle by Jessica Rae sponsored by Streets

Eltham Cooper Butterfly Story by Karen Rawady
sponsored by Healesville Sanctuary 

Forest rides on the elephant's back by Pamela
Conder sponsored by Orange Power 

Elephas Maximus by Sharon Muir sponsored by
Gribbles Veterinary Pathology 

Mali's Crimson Song by Mia Rappel
sponsored by Zoos Victoria