A map can show us where streets and buildings are located. It cannot always show us why a place matters.

Our Town: A Children’s Guide to Tanunda invites you to encounter the town through the drawings, memories and observations of Foundation students from Faith Lutheran College. Walking together through Tanunda, the children looked closely at familiar places, noticed the details that gave each one its character, and shared the experiences and relationships that made them meaningful.

Their observations reveal a town understood through everyday life. A church is where a family gathers and a grandparent plays the organ. A bakery carries memories of generations who worked there. A café is where Mum stops for coffee. The Museum is filled not only with historical objects, but with “a stunning dress”, an old family name and a doll that looks “like a zombie”.

Together, the drawings and words form another kind of map: one shaped by connection, memory, curiosity and belonging.

The Barossa Regional Gallery is the hub for the exhibition, presenting the children’s original artworks and observations. Across Tanunda, participating businesses display the children’s drawings in their windows and on their frontages, extending the exhibition into the places that inspired it. The interactive map brings these elements together, with each numbered stop featuring an artwork and the children’s own words. The project unfolds across the Gallery, the township and the website as a child-led experience of place.

Follow the numbered markers from the Gallery, explore the trail in any order, or visit online from wherever you are.

Slow down. Look closely. Let the children guide you through Our Town.