Students at a Tamar Valley primary school have won a national competition for their mural celebrating the wildlife that lives above, below and along kanamaluka/the Tamar River.
Exeter Primary School has been named the winner of Keep Australia Beautiful’s Paint Australia Beautiful national people’s choice award, after Australians voted for their favourite design between October 30 and November 6.
The school was Tasmania’s state finalist and one of eight state and territory finalists in the 2026 competition, which asked students to design murals around the themes litter prevention, waste management and biodiversity.
Teacher Amy Sims and the school’s Grade 6 peer leaders led the project.
“Our 2025 Grade 6 peer leaders wanted to leave a mural behind as their legacy, but we couldn’t source the paint to finish it at the time,” Sims said.
“The idea didn’t disappear. When Paint Australia Beautiful came across my desk, it felt like the perfect way to make it happen.”
This year’s peer leaders picked up where their predecessors left off, adding ideas inspired by changes to waste management at the school.
Between nine and 20 students helped paint the wall and former Exeter students who came up with the original idea, now at the high school across the road, were invited back to help.
The artwork features wallabies, pademelons, green rosellas, plovers and the school’s resident possum, along with fish, crayfish and other underwater species.
Every animal in the design is one an Exeter student has seen.
The mural can be seen from a new public walking path behind the school.
Keep Australia Beautiful chief executive Val Southam said Exeter’s students had used their platform “brilliantly”.
“Australians have backed their mural as our national people’s choice winner and it is a beautiful reminder of why we all need to do the right thing for our environment,” she said.
The competition is supported by Dulux, which supplied paint to state finalists.
Dulux Australia community manager Sophie Brereton said the mural would leave “a wonderful legacy for the school and the wider West Tamar community”.
Sims said the result showed local support for the students.
“Protecting our little slice of the Tamar Valley takes people working together and this win shows our community is right behind them,” she said.
The competition will run again in 2027, with submissions open in Term 1 and Term 2.
