Before I Die invites residents to add their hopes and dreams to a giant chalkboard set up on the facade of the Boland Street cottages, to start a conversation about what it means to be human.

Once the wall was completed yesterday, passersby were quick to take up the chalk and fill in the blanks after "Before I die I want to ...".

Answers ranged from the existential "find myself" to the practical "travel overseas", and the childhood dream "go to the Olympics" from nine-year-old Grace Esdale, of Brisbane.

The facilitators - visual artists Jude Maslin and Anthony Rienits - took their inspiration from the original project by Candy Chang in New Orleans, which started three years ago after Chang lost someone she loved.

Maslin said she was pleased with the response that the wall had already generated.

"It shows us that we're all not too dissimilar," she said.

There have been more than 400 of the walls created in 60 countries in more than 25 languages, and Chang released a book of her favourite responses from around the world in November.

The Launceston project will run for a month.