13 November 2025
A beautiful mural painted by Williams Primary School students has been selected as a state finalist for the Paint Australia Beautiful Schools Mural Competition.
Led by teachers Kristy Medlen and Rebecca Ford, staff and students worked together to improve a very large blank wall near the school office.
Williams Primary School students got to help paint their mural design.
Mrs Medlen said the local Community Resource Centre’s Williams Wildlife Warriors discovered the mural competition and thought it would be a great for the school.
“They had spotted the Keep Australia Beautiful Mural competition and thought it would be a great way to carry this important message [of sustainability] into our school and would be constant reminder,” Mrs Medlen said.
“As a staff, we were excited about the project, and a few teachers started the process of what and where we could create a mural.”
The national competition encourages students to protect and preserve local biodiversity and fosters a sense of eco-consciousness by inviting them to create a nature-inspired mural that captures their vision for a cleaner, more sustainable Australia.
Williams Primary School came out on top as the state finalist after being selected by the public and went head-to-head with the other state finalists across the country. Bexley Public School in NSW took out the National People’s Choice Award.
Students at Williams Primary School worked together to draft their design for the wall, inspired by the plants and wildlife of the Dryandra Woodland National Park.
“Our Year 5 and 6 students went on an overnight excursion to Dryandra where they connected with the beautiful local flora and fauna,” Mrs Medlen said.
Students were hard at work bringing their design to life.
“On return to school they then sketched some of these. We then collated these drawings into our mural, including the numbat which is also our school emblem.”
The students aimed to highlight how special the area is and how important it is to preserve and protect it for future generations to come.
With the help of local artist Georgina Patterson, the mural took two weeks to be painted, with students helping on the lower portion of the mural.
Year 6 student Bridget McKenna said the mural reflects the school as it looks friendly and so are the students.
“[The painting] was fun and made me feel like a real artist,” Bridget said.
“As the class graduating, it was nice leaving behind something to remember.”
Student leaders with the finished mural.
James Steicke, Year 6 student, said he enjoyed doing something fun and being involved with the mural.
“We are so lucky to have Georgina to help us put our ideas on a big canvas,” he said.
“It was exciting to see all of our ideas come together and make one picture.”
Mrs Medlen said the mural helped embed the knowledge they learnt from their excursion and encouraged them to take care of the precious environment for generations to come.
“Every day I walk past the mural I feel a sense of pride in what we have achieved. It is truly beautiful,” she said.
“I can only imagine that the students make these same connections and remember this message about sustainability for years to come.”
Read more about their painting and nomination on Keep Australia Beautiful's Facebook and website.
See all the finalists here.