In a Canberra first, 78 graffiti artists are converging on the Woden drains – rumoured to be the longest legal graffiti site in the Southern Hemisphere – for an annual “graff meet” this weekend.
Organiser Lindsay Westphal, from Perth, said it was the largest graff meet he’d ever organised and his aim was to preserve their culture and to highlight the fact that graffiti art came first – mural art came second.
In another Canberra first, this is the first time all 500+ metres of the Woden drain, from end-to-end, has been painted with graffiti art in one go.
There are no paintbrushes, just spray cans.
“To me, it’s art,” Lindsay said. “Street art and graffiti are two different things, there’s a distinctive difference. Street art is mostly focused on paintbrushes or stencils whereas graffiti is more focused on an actual word or a theme. When you’re only just doing faces, it takes away from the main thing, which is actually the word.”
The theme for this weekend’s graff-meet is “dark”, meaning skulls, crossbones, wizards or warlocks. The mural faces will be done in colour and the words/characters are done in greyscale.
The average age of graffiti artists this weekend is 40+ and they’ve travelled from Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne to give Canberra a spray.
Lindsay said he was going to hold the event in Perth but “couldn’t find a wall long enough”. He’s dubbed this year’s meet “The Killing of Canberra” but don’t panic, it’s a harmless saying (“killing it” meaning absolutely nailing it).
“Most of us are over 40 now and it gets us all together and it’s just all about talking,” 53-year-old Lindsay said. “A guy came up to me today and I haven’t seen him since ‘97. You just keep giving back to what you’re painting and I think that’s the greatest reward because everyone comes together.”
Lindsay plans to publish a photo book on this weekend’s debut graff-meet in Canberra and he’s also arranged t-shirts and posters for the “writers” to keep as souvenirs.
Footage of last year’s graff-meet in Melbourne went viral on social media, attracting 128,000 views and Lindsay’s already planning a 2026 get-together in New Zealand or Hobart.
“So this way, I get someone new to paint with and go to another state,” Lindsay said. “You get to represent. You get to have fun. That’s the main thing, this unity, getting everyone together to just catch up and have fun and talk.”
Canberra has the most designated legal graffiti sites out of all capital cities in Australia and Woden drains near Callam Street (a permanent legal wall that runs alongside Yarralumla Creek) has been a legal canvas for graffiti artists since the late 1990s.
