Wildlife murals are one of our most requested mural themes. Native Australian animals, birds and marine life show up again and again in the school murals, council commissions and community projects we take on. Here are three recent Australian wildlife murals we’re proud of, showing what a genuinely site-specific design can achieve — from a Sydney Water pump station to two very different school campuses.
1. Camden Pump Station: Platypus, Wombat & Kookaburra Along the Nepean River
Commissioned by Camden Council in partnership with Sydney Water, this mural turned a working pump station into a piece of site-specific public art. Year 10 Visual Design students from Camden High School ran a brainstorming workshop and built folded-paper models of the pump station’s four sides before the final concept was developed — and their ideas about local wildlife and the Nepean River shaped the finished design.
The mural wraps a platypus, wombat, dwarf tree frog and kookaburra around the structure, alongside a Camden White Gum and the Nepean River itself, which the site sits beside and floods near every few years. An anti-graffiti coating protects the finished artwork. See the full Camden Pump Station case study →
2. Campbelltown Public School: Leaning Into “Koalatown”
Campbelltown is known locally as “Koalatown” for its resident koala population, and the second of two murals at Campbelltown Public School leans straight into that identity with a koala as its centrepiece. The first mural features a rainbow lorikeet and sulphur-crested cockatoo. Both regularly seen around the school grounds, set against references to the area’s history.
Rather than generic animal imagery, both murals were designed around wildlife the students actually see day to day, giving the artwork a direct, recognisable connection to the school’s own environment. See the full Campbelltown Public School case study →
3. Madang Avenue Public School: An Ocean Mural in the Playground
Our ongoing mural program at Madang Avenue Public School has delivered nine murals across the campus, including an ocean-themed mural with an octopus, alongside parrot and jungle-style artwork through stairwells and shared spaces. The program also includes an Indigenous collaboration mural created with artist Michael Fardon, featuring a bat, owl and possum representing different classes within the school.
It’s a good example of how wildlife themes flex across a single site — bright, ocean-themed artwork for a playground reads very differently to the more detailed collaboration piece elsewhere on campus, but both are grounded in real animals rather than generic decoration. See the full Madang Avenue case study →
Why Wildlife Murals Work So Well
Across all three of these projects, the wildlife murals succeed for the same reason: the animals, birds and marine life featured are not generic stock imagery, they are the actual species tied to that site, whether it is a platypus and kookaburra beside the Nepean River, a koala at a school in “Koalatown,” or an octopus in a playground built around an ocean theme. That local specificity is what turns a painted wall into a piece of public art people recognise and take pride in.
For councils and schools, wildlife murals also do double duty as an informal education tool — students and visitors pick up small facts about the native animals on their own doorstep just by walking past. Paired with a durable anti-graffiti coating, a well-designed wildlife mural is a low-maintenance way to add colour, storytelling and a genuine sense of place to a pump station, stairwell or school yard for years to come.
Planning Wildlife Murals for Your School or Council?
Whether it’s native species for a school, a council commission tied to a local waterway, or a full ocean scene, we design every wildlife mural around the real plants and animals of the site rather than reusing stock imagery. See our Australian Wildlife Murals service page for pricing and more examples, or browse our full wildlife mural portfolio. These wildlife pieces sit alongside the full range of Australian murals we paint each year, from coastal towns to inner-city laneways.
