As far as Chiltern locals are concerned, growing interest in a large new mural is only natural.
Artist Kirrily Anderson's mammoth mural at Chiltern Park Recreation Reserve is part of a State Government program to promote, protect and conserve Victoria’s threatened species.
The work was commissioned for the picturesque village just off the Hume Freeway as part of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning [DELWP] "icon species" grants program.
And it is hard to miss.
"Everything's very intentional here," Ms Anderson said of the mural's many figures.
The work depicts a scene from Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park. A girl with binoculars is surrounded by white box and ironbark trees, fungi, spider orchids and bluebells of the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park.
In the foliage are a brush-tailed phascogale, a frog, a flame robin, a barking owl, a squirrel glider and, perhaps most noteworthy, a critically endangered regent honeyeater.
The regent honeyeater, Ms Anderson said, recently successfully added to breeding programs, is particularly important to the community and the national park. When it came to deciding what to include in the mural from the DELWP's list, Ms Anderson said she started with "favourites", citing her enthusiasm for fungi and lichen.
In 2017, Ms Anderson moved to Chiltern from inner-Melbourne's Collingwood and she said was "fortunate to be living amongst the national park with all these great things here that I didn't know about before".
Visitors going out of their way
Nikki Smart, from Wangaratta, made a detour to visit the mural on her way back from dropping off a friend.
"I've seen the progress in the last week or so and it is amazing. There's so much detail and the colour is stunning," she said.
"I think locals and people driving by will be really happy to have it there."
Ms Anderson said there had been "a lot of interest in the community".
"I think it's exciting for Chiltern to have such a large scale artwork here in the town".
Conversations with curious onlookers has been part of the process, Ms Anderson said.
A unique workplace
"You really do feel like you're in the national park all the time," Ms Anderson said.
"It's been a really nice place to work."
Ms Anderson said a swarm of bees, birds of prey and lizards all made themselves known during her month painting the back wall of the Recreation Reserve's football club rooms.
"Someone told me last night they saw a turtle walking past here the other day", Ms Anderson said.
"We live in a national park."
Ms Anderson said she took delight in "experiencing nature doing its thing while I'm painting it".
