The Road to the Bondi Sea Wall: Painting Australia’s Iconic Graffiti Wall
“The Bondi Sea Wall is one of Sydney’s most iconic public graffiti spaces, stretching along the coast beside the famous Bondi Beach. The wall is covered with constantly changing artwork from local and international artists, making it a huge outdoor gallery right by the ocean.”
A year before I painted my own mural there (feb 2025), I was walking along the wall and looking at all the different graffiti and artworks. I remember thinking, “Wow, how cool would it be if I could ever paint something here?”
And if you know me, you probably know what happened next. Once I get an idea like that in my head, I usually want to make it happen.
So about six months later, I applied for the opportunity to paint on the wall. I had no idea if I would actually get a spot, but I thought: why not try?
THE e-mail
At the time, I was in Indonesia and was actually about to fly to the Netherlands when I suddenly received an email saying that a section of the wall had become available. They asked if I wanted to send in a design.
I was so excited. I made the design, sent it over and, not long after, I got the approval. I was told that I could paint the wall within a month and was asked if I could come by the following week.
There I was, still in Indonesia, and I basically thought: okay, we’re doing this. I changed my flight and flew to Australia.
Luckily, I had a friend living in Bondi. I messaged her and told her what had happened, and she immediately said that I should go for it and that I could stay with her. That made the whole thing a lot easier, and I was lucky enough to stay really close to the beach.
The neon paint mistake
The day after I arrived, I went to see the wall. My section was around 12 square metres, and it was much higher than I had imagined. My first thought was actually, “How am I going to paint this? I don’t even have a ladder.” haha…
After trying in Facebook groups, my friend told me there was a ladder at the library that I might be able to borrow. I asked, and luckily they let me use it. 4 times in a row. oops!
The next day, I went to buy paint with my friend. I had already prepared my design and had a specific colour palette in mind, but somewhere along the way I got excited and decided to try neon pink and neon yellow instead.
I bought the paint, went to the wall and started testing the colours…… OMG UGLY.
So the next day, I went back to buy different paint and started again. That was definitely one of the first lessons I learned from the project: stick to your colour palette. Sometimes the idea in your head is much better than what it actually looks like on a huge wall, whaha.
Painting in the Australian winter
The weather was another challenge. I hadn’t properly thought about the fact that I would be painting outside in Australia during winter. There was a lot of wind, it was freezing cold and then it started raining.
I had barely brought any proper winter clothes with me because I had been in Indonesia before coming to Australia, so my hands were basically freezing while I was painting.
The rain also caused some of the paint to run down the wall, which meant I had to work around the weather and wait for better conditions. In total, the process took around ten days, although I spent about three actual days painting on the wall.
The people I met along the way
Despite all the challenges, I absolutely loved the experience.
One of my favourite moments was when a little kid came past on a skateboard while I was painting. We ended up painting together for a bit, which was such a fun and unexpected moment.
Another memorable moment was when a large group of Japanese tourists came past and we ended up taking a whole series of photos together in front of the mural.
Those are the things I love about painting in public spaces. You never really know who is going to walk past, who will stop for a chat or what kind of interaction will happen around the artwork.
What I learned
The project taught me a lot about working as an artist abroad. I learned to plan my materials more carefully, check the weather properly and come prepared for the conditions. Most importantly, I learned to be flexible when things don’t go according to plan.
A year before this project, I was walking along the Bondi Sea Wall thinking about how cool it would be to paint there one day.
A year later, I was standing on that same wall with a paintbrush in my hand, painting my own artwork next to Bondi Beach.
I still think that’s pretty fucking cool!!!
(If you’re interested in working together on a mural, illustration or custom artwork, I’d love to hear from you)
You can reach me at thenoniz.family@gmail.com
Here are some more reels from my time painting in Bondi.
