If you take the time to look up while you are on the Keen Street pedestrian crossing, you will see a giant eastern water dragon has appeared on the top of the Shoppe One building. 

The water dragon has been painted by local graffiti artist Jeremy Austin.

His giant artwork was commissioned by the building’s owners - Janice and Graeme Palmer, who wanted to "spruce it up"

“We took over running the Shoppe One family business five years ago from Graeme's father - and we wanted to put our own stamp on the building,” Janice said.

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“The building really needed a paint and a clean - and rather than paint it boring blue, we thought why not get a local artist to do something on our wall.

“So, we asked the Soren at Graffiti Design about it and he suggested Jeremy would be the right artist for it.

“We loved Jeremy’s work when we looked at his website and he said he was keen to do it.”

Why a water dragon?

“We wanted something different and thought the eastern water dragon was perfect," Janice said.

“A lot of people in the hinterland refer to Lismore as 'the lizard' and we thought we should embrace the idea.”

Janice said Jeremy completed the artwork over two days – and there’s still a bit more to be done.

“He will finish it off with the Latin name of the eastern water dragon, as well as the Aboriginal name – and his graffiti moniker,” she said.

Local Bundjalung artist Gilbert Laurie said the dragon was called a ‘magil’ in the language of the local First Nations Peoples.

“Jeremy has done a wonderful job,” Janice said.

“We think it’s really good for the town – and we are bringing the graffiti art that we see in the back laneways into the main street.

“I’d like to see more on the back of the building too. We are getting our gates at the back of the alleyway painted too with more artwork.

“We really want to support our fantastic local artists and spruce up the town at the same time.

“Lismore is a fantastic town and we want to encourage more people to visit here.”