New Lambton Heights Infants School students have nominated much loved local landmarks - including their favourite hill to ride billycarts - for inclusion in a new mural.
Author and illustrator Liz Anelli spent a year working on and two weeks painting the illustrated map mural, which is on the back of the school's administration building.
Year 1/2 D composite class teacher Tess Dowman said she approached Ms Anelli and asked her to replace an outdated mural with a new work that would reflect the students' lessons in history and geography.
"In both of these subjects we were looking at their local area - what is 'local' and what is in the area around the children," Ms Dowman said.
"We talked about Blackbutt and mining and with geography we talked about where the school sits in Newcastle and in the state.
"It's nice to see this break it down to a community level.
"They can say 'This is my community, this is where I belong'."
Ms Anelli said she made several trips to the school to ask students what they thought should be included and show them updated sketches as the concept evolved.
"I asked them what they saw when they were walking to school, what kind of animals they saw in the gardens they walked past," she said.
"It wasn't fantastical - otherwise people would want space stations - but about exploring the location."
The mural has at its heart the school of 87 pupils, complete with the hollow tree stumps used for "making stews and magic potions"; as well as several local houses; the "fairy park" behind Hollywood Parade; the house with two flags at a corner of Marshall Street and a billycart hurtling down Currawong Road.
