Elliott Award 2025

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In the far reaches of Victoria’s Mallee, where vast horizons stretch, one artist has been quietly reshaping the role of creativity in community life.

Those who have worked alongside Murrayville resident Morrison Polkinghorne describe him as a figure deeply invested in people and place, generous with his time, ideas, and energy. His approach to art is not confined to galleries or studios, but extends into lived experience, connection, and wellbeing.

It is this combination of artistry and community contribution that led to this week’s (26 April) recognition through the Elliott Award in Mildura, an honour celebrating rural Victorian individuals whose significant impact on the arts might otherwise go unacknowledged. Established in 2004, the Elliott Award acknowledges those who have strengthened cultural life through dedication, leadership, and the nurturing of creative practice across generations. Past recipients have been recognised not only for their artistic achievements, but for their role in building a lasting community legacy.

Morrison Polkinghorne’s journey to Murrayville is anything but conventional. Born in Tasmania and raised in Alice Springs, his path led him across continents, from Sydney to Battambang Cambodia, where he spent a decade living and working. It was there that his artistic practice took on its most distinctive form, grounded not just in aesthetics, but in ritual, material, and spiritual meaning.

Working almost exclusively in black ink that he produces himself, distilled from charred lotus petals collected at Cambodian temples, Polkinghorne’s art explores a space between simplicity and depth. His work is defined by restraint, yet carries a quiet intensity that has seen his works exhibited both internationally and locally, Alongside his artistic career, he previously built another creative businesses, looming historic decorative passementier (tassels) for Historic Houses Trust, with feature articles in publications including Vogue Living Australia, Belle, and Country Living

But it is his Mallee contributions since arriving back in Australia in 2021 that most lately defines his legacy.

Settling in Murrayville, along the Vic-SA border and neighbouring Pinnaroo, Polkinghorne transformed the town’s century-old Anglican Church into both home and studio, a symbolic merging of place, creativity, and purpose. From that base he has become a central figure in arts-led community wellbeing across the border community and further afield.

For the past four years, Morrison played a pivotal role in the Pinnaroo Project, delivering arts and crafts programs supporting mental health in rural communities. These studies collaborated with Flinders University to demonstrate the tangible benefits of creative practice on community wellbeing.

“Working with the community gives me great joy. From teaching pigment making at Phare school with its thousand students in Cambodia, to a local lady here who told me these projects have added years to her life. That is more precious than selling a painting.”

Now serving as Murrayville Neighbourhood House Coordinator with Mallee Track Health & Community Services, Polkinghorne continues to expand access to creativity across the Mallee. Through workshops and community engagement he helps bring artistic opportunity to towns where such access is often limited.

His vision also extends into innovative storytelling. In November 2025, he launched A.R.M. Murrayville, an augmented reality project that reanimates the town’s historic streetscapes, allowing visitors and locals alike to uncover hidden narratives layered within contemporary spaces. It is a project bridging past and present, technology and heritage.

Morrison is currently working with around 30 members of the Murrayville community on a collaborative project titled Woven History Murrayville. The project brings together historic photographs that are reprinted, cut, and finally rewoven by hand. Through this process, fragments of the past are physically interlaced with the present, creating new interpretations of shared history while strengthening community connection through the act of making. He is also leading an ambitious initiative with the Murrayville Liaison Group to transform the town’s historic courthouse into a dedicated art gallery. That project reflects his ongoing commitment to embedding the arts within the fabric of the community.

Polkinghorne’s creative life has long been multifaceted. He is designer and co-author of the award-winning The Burma Cookbook, and during his earlier years in Sydney, his textile company Passementeries received national recognition, winning “Most Innovative Product” at the National Interior Design Show.

Yet accolades alone do not capture the full scope of his impact, and Polkinghorne’s work embodies that very spirit. In a region defined by its remoteness, he has demonstrated how art can become a point of connection between people and legacies. His practice, grounded in a single shade of black ink, continues to reveal unexpected depth, not just on paper, but across an entire community.