The elephants are out in Melbourne. You might have seen one or more of the 50 baby elephant statues around the Melbourne CBD. Why are there so many elephants? What are they doing there? Don’t we usually have koalas and kangaroos in Australia?
No … it’s Mali … the baby elephant. The Melbourne Zoo celebrates 150 years and got together 50 artist-designed elephants throughout the Melbourne CBD. The elephants stay in the Melbourne city from the 10th August 2012 to September 21st. After that the whole elephant herd will gather in the Melbourne Zoo. All the baby elephants will then be auctioned off on the 25th October.
Spot all the Melbourne Mali elephants
The beautiful life-size sculptures of Mali (the Asian baby elephant of the Melbourne Zoo which was born 2 years ago – the most famous elephant calf of the Melbourne Zoo) are easy to spot everywhere in the Melbourne city. It is a free art event for the whole family. It is great fun to find all the elephants and discover the city. You will need some time.
It is hard to spot them all on one day … but you can manage when you start early. Make sure you take your time – don’t rush … these elephants are too beautiful for just a quick look.
The whole event is run in conjuction with Wild in Art. They have engaged three-time Archibald Prize finalist, artist David Bromley to be the program’s Art Patron. Wild in Art is UK based and organises these type of “Animals in the city” events. Great idea!
Andreas loves elephants. Usually we shoot weddings and portraits but we decided to go out and shoot a few elephants (Update: We love them so much … so we decided to cover them all) … no not really shooting them … only with our camera. Just for fun.
The Mali Elephant iPhone App – find all the Melbourne elephants
We equipped ourselves with the Melbourne Zoo Mali iPhone App – which is of great help to find and keep track of all the Malis. You can tick all the found elephants and can unlock little prizes. The locations of the elephants are pretty accurate and easier to find with the build in navigation and GPS. Make sure you charge your phone as the constant GPS usage drains your battery. You can only tag an elephant when you very close it.
The iPhone app is available for free and is highly recommended for anyone who wants to go elephant hunting.
We realized at a few times that the iphone App crashes when you use the map search functionality … also 1 elephant is located wrong on the map. We managed to tag all the elephants except 3 unverified (we were there but the app did not work 🙁 … so we can’t tell you what happens when you tagged them all … let us know when you find out.). But we have all the 50 Mali in our camera and that is far more important.
The alternative is a printed map which was available in the Herald Sun last weekend or you can use the Melbourne Zoo google map … find it here (Update: No longer available)
Mali in my School – Elephants throughout Victoria
Mali in the city is not the only program. There is also Mali in my school. 55 Mini Malis are sent to Victorian schools for the kids to design. We would love to see these elephants … we expect some amazing designs. Kids have so much creativity. There will be an exhibition in the Melbourne Zoo from the 22 September – 14 October.
And here they are – THE ELEPHANTS:
Our aim is to have beautiful photos of all the Malis in Melbourne. We are working on the photos at the moment and will upload soon more :-0. We still finalize the shoot on Sunday … so please come back and you will see more beautiful elephant pictures. You can find a little Mali preview on our Facebook Page.
Update 12/08/2012 9pm: We are just back from a second day Mali photoshoot. Even more walking to find more elephants. We found them all !!! Yeah !!! You will see soon more pictures.
Update 14/08/2012: Our facebook gallery is now complete … there is a picture of every elephant sculpture. Make sure you like and share it. We still have lots of elephant pictures to upload here on this post. Come back to see them all …
Update 16/08/2012: We decided to split up the post as there are just too many elephants. We found them all! At the bottom of this post you find the link to the next galleries … make sure you check them out. We hope you enjoy the pictures.
Update 19/08/2012: The 3 blog posts are completed. We uploaded all pictures of all 50 Malis. 🙂 Enjoy. And don’t forget to like and share … to show the world our beautiful Malis.
Where are the Elephants in Melbourne?
01 No Ordinary Elephant
by Nicole Slater (sponsored by Melbourne Storm) at Crown Casino
02 Kevin Presley
by Steve Monk (sponsored by equipsuper) at Batman Park
03 Mali self portrait
by Mali the Elephant at Southbank
04 Elephantasy
by Elise Martinson (sponsored by VicSuper) at Queensbridge Square, Southbank
05 Rusty Mali
by Russ Brebner (sponsored by Cookers) at Melbourne City – Chinatown
06 City in Mali
by Ralf Kempken (sponsored by Lite’n Easy) at Melbourne CBD , Swanston Street
07 Faunaphant
by Sarah Hogan (sponsored by Eureka Skydeck) at Eureka Tower
08 Urban Jungle Mali
by Jake Latimer (sponsored by Mitchell – Family Office) at Les Erdi Plaza
09 Mirka’s Mali
by Mirka Mora (sponsored by Schweppes)
10 Mali’s Dreaming
by Judy Nicholson (sponsored by Wurundjeri Tribe Land & Compaensation Cultural Heritage Council Inc.) at Birrarung Marr with the MCG – Melbourne Cricket Ground
11 Jimbo – Mali Elephant
by Janie Fearon (sponsored by Boston Consulting Group) at Federation Square Melbourne
12 Eltham Copper Butterfly Story
by Karen Rawady (sponsored by Healsville Sactuary) at Royal Botanic Gardens
13 Elephas Maximus
by Sharon Muir (sponsored by Gribbles Veterinary) at Royal Botanic Gardens
14 Pond dreaming
by David Higgins (sponsored by Melbourne Zoo) at Royal Children’s Hospital
15 Jingle
by Jessica Rae (sponsored by Streets) close to the Shrine
Update: 22/08/2012 Mali maintenance is currently taking place!
Jessica Rae’s Mali ‘Jingle’ is currently off display. Jingle is being attended to by Melbourne Zoo vets and will be a feature on the Mali trail once again by the end of the week.
16 Here Today
by Elise Martinson (sponsored by Deakin University) at Melbourne Zoo entrance
17 Botani
by Michal Skilney (sponsored by Botani Skincare) at Argyle Square, Lygon Street
18 Ming Vase Elephant
by Brian Cheung (sponsored by ecoFuture) at Queen Victoria Market
19 A Pattern of Orange-bellied Parrots
by Vanessa Bong (sponsored by Queen Victoria Market) at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne
20 Mali is Listening to the Earth
by Victor Holder (sponsored by Sanitarium Foods) at Flagstaff Gardens
There are more Melbourne elephant pictures … see the other 30 elephants here:
We had to split up the pictures … there are just too many. Please have a look at Part II and III of the collection:
–> More “Mali in the city” – Elephant pictures Part II
–> More “Mali in the city” – Elephant pictures Part III
Do you want to use our Mali pictures?
We did this photoshoot for fun … snapshots. So feel free to use our pictures. Just credit us and supply a link to our website – that is all what we ask for. And maybe like our facebook page :-).
