Blue Mountains News

This project was a collaboration with students from Lithgow High School, project partner Sharon Howard from the Gang Gang Gallery, Deb Bardon from the Lithgow Transformation Hub, Lithgow City Council and Mandy Schone-Salter, Mural Artist.

“Lithgow Council are very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with this artist, and members our community, to achieve something rather special. Lithgow is known for its prominent sense of place and community spirit. These murals further strengthen our ties to culture and heritage. Council looks forward to future opportunities to revitalise public places in new and innovative ways.” said Mayor Maree Statham.

Mandy is an artist from the Blue Mountains who has collaborated with many Councils and even our own local art gallery Gang Gang. The artist sat down with at least 30 Lithgow High students to brainstorm what the mural should include. The students came up with the idea of the Lithgow panther as it is popular local folklore with many alleged sightings over the years.

This is the first of five murals to be created in the Lithgow CBD with key locations to still be identified and is funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. The five murals are to represent people, place and planet to progress a public arts trail in Lithgow over a two year period.