A magpie with a broken leg is featured on a new mural at Old Bonalbo School.

The magpie scores food all around the village.

“Everyone thinks the magpie is their magpie,” a resident said.

The bird likes to steal the lunch scraps under the tables at the school.

No one knows how its leg was broken.

Before artists Austin Moncrieff and Mikey Schmick paint a school mural they ask students for their stories and interests.

That’s how they ended up painting the magpie.

Austin did the dramatic Phoenix mural at Rappville Public School after the fires and he also painted the school water tank depicting firefighters.

“I’ve been to over 160 schools across Australia,” Austin said.

Based out of Yamba, his hyper-realistic style of painting stands out.

“I put a quirk to the mural. Art is about taking it to the next level,” he said.

At Rappville he donated his time for free to paint a railway mural opposite the Rappville Pub – a nod to the village’s history.

At Old Bonalbo it was all about the birds including the magpie.

The Old Bonalbo murals are bright and unmissable. To see more of Austin’s work go here.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 23 February 2024.