Year 6 students Jessica Larsen and Lilly Gosper helped to design Barugil the lizard.
Students started returning to school this week and at Middleton Primary they were greeted by a big, bright and cheerful lizard.
The artwork, made from recycled materials by the school community, depicts the Gunbalanya dreamtime story of the blue tongue lizard.
The students looked at and combined both traditional and modern indigenous artwork styles to create the piece measuring five metres by three metres. The lizard was drawn by Year 6 students, Jessica Larsen and Lilly Gosper, and then all students were involved in adding approximately 3,500 colourful bottle tops to complete the full picture.
The artwork has been named Barugil, which is Wiradjuri for blue tongue. The artwork was completed for the annual Waste 2 Art competition and exhibition run by NetWaste.
The project was once again directed by Helen Standen, having led the school to eight previous regional wins in the competition.
Although the competition was cancelled this year because of COVID-19, the students still enjoyed returning to school being welcomed by the eye-catching artwork.
“It is so nice for everyone to be back on board, with more and more students coming back each day,” said teacher Judy Fisher.
The whole school gets involved in the annual Waste 2 Art project during their library time learning about reducing, reusing and recycling waste.