On Wednesday, March 12, an eager group of Barham Primary School students had an exciting meet and greet with the water tower mural painting team and local resident and artwork feature George Rathbone.

The young and enthusiastic students fired a barrage of questions on the logistics of painting a tower, to the history of the artist Gus Eagleton.

Asking Gus how he got into painting giant murals he replied “I always had an interest in painting and art-related things. Like a lot of people I liked drawing and painting through school and high school, and decided, after high school, to take it a bit more professional, and went to uni.”

Completing a Fine Arts degree, Gus said one thing led to another, and he ended up down the large murals path.

“I started to do mural projects. At that point, I didn’t really know it was like a career, but eventually, I realised you could make money out of it and turn it into a full-time job.”

In his tenth year of painting large-scale artworks, Gus’s work has taken him around the world.

“I travel a lot because many of the projects are council based, and then I’ve been doing a lot of street art graffiti festivals overseas and also mural festivals.”

The Barham water tower is the first water tower Gus has painted, and he explained that painting a cylindrical surface comes with a unique set of challenges.

“Everything kind of warps with that surface, especially when you’re painting people and elements need to be recognised, you need to account for that curve. I try to get everything to look natural, as well as having to link the artwork around, so it works from every aspect.”

The Barham mural is broken up into three silhouettes, with detailed and colourful artwork contained within each of the three. Facing the Moulamein Rd roundabout is a silhouette of an ANZAC soldier with the annual ANZAC march depicted within, along with local produce. Facing the Thule Street to Gonn Street bend is a silhouette of an Indigenous man, and the area’s natural beauty and abundance are depicted. The final silhouette of a timber cutter facing the footy ground, with artwork capturing the river, beautiful gum trees and a paddleboat.

Gus uses paints imported from New Zealand as they have high-grade artistic pigment. The team then uses a combination of pre-ordered and some mixed on-site paints to give the tower its amazing array of colours.

Painting in Barham’s dry heat, as opposed to Gus’s native humid Brisbane, has been hot work but thoroughly enjoyable with lots of support from passing locals.

“Everyone’s very friendly. We haven’t had any complaints yet. It’s been good; a lot of people stop and give us a yell or honk the horn and take photos, which is always nice.”

The Barham water tower is one of five sites funded through the $1.7 million awarded in Round Two of the NSW Government’s Regional Tourism Activation Fund. The Moulamein Water Tower will commence with surface preparations this weekend.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 20 March 2025.