One of the city's most recognisable street murals - Thirrilmun by artist Matt Last, better known as Adnate - outside the Newcastle Interchange, has been covered after it was defaced by vandals.
The mural was unveiled in 2018 a few blocks from the Melbourne artist's other mural on Hannell Street at Wickham, depicting an anonymous Indigenous boy.
That mural was demolished in 2019 to make way for the Stella apartment tower.
Thirrilmun - a word that describes a women's spiritual totem animal, the brown treecreeper woodpecker - depicts one of the founders of the the Awabakal Newcastle Aboriginal Co-Operative, Aunty June Rose, and her great-granddaughter, Nayeli.
In a statement, Transport for NSW confirmed the 25-metre mural had been vandalised by graffiti and that the department, which is responsible for its maintenance, has covered the work pending its refurbishment.
"Initial inspections have been carried out and it has been determined that due to the current damage and the damage that has occurred in the past the mural can no longer be satisfactorily repaired," a department spokesperson said.
The Newcastle Herald understands that local Indigenous stakeholders will be involved in plans to rehabilitate the site.
When the work was unveiled in 2019, Mr Last said the mural represented the "passing on of culture, generation to generation", as well as recognising Mrs Rose's decades of community service.
In March, Mrs Rose appeared in the Newcastle Knight's Acknowledgement of Country, released in video on March 28.
Mr Last, meanwhile, made headlines at the end of last month, winning the prestigious Packing Room Prize as part of this year's Archibald.
Mr Last's dramatic portrait of Baker Boy - Yolngu rapper Danzal Baker - took out the the $3000 staff pick as finalists in the Archibald awards were publicly revealed on Thursday, May 30.
