Sister city mural takes shape

A mural celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Busselton-Sugito Sister relationship is now complete.

Busselton artist Tom Ansell spent the last week working on the mural, which is located on Prince Street, and said he was inspired to create a work that unified the symbols of the two cities.

“The cedar tree represents Sugito whilst the tuart tree represents Busselton,” he said.

The mural is the first Ansell has created, spending more than 50 hours on the project, which he said was reflective of the two different cultures coming together.

“It’s about cultural diversity and teaching people about other areas of the world and other ways of life,” he said.

Busselton-Sugito Sister Cities Association president Pauline Vukelic said the mural depicted Sugiphyon, the mascot for Sugito, who will appear in Busselton soon.

“These characters are very popular for local government authorities in Japan so we have organised a costume to be made which will make its debut next year and will appear at events and functions in and around Busselton,” she said.