14/08/2026
INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING ARTIST Sam Brooks
Hunter Fighter Collection War Memorial Mural at Upper Hunter Shire Council’s Bellman Hangar.
Quick facts:
Over 50 metres long.
Over 8 metres high.
100 litres of paint.
70 spray cans.
10 brushes.
8 rollers.
2 scissor lifts.
One very cold artist.
One slightly warmer (and better prepared) artist.
9 local aviation legends depicted.
1 famous (and local) war horse.
Two hidden spitfire planes to find.
One of Australia’s largest aviation war memorial murals.
HOW DID THIS PROJECT GET STARTED?
Back in 2023, some passionate members of the Hunter Fighter Collection (HFC) in Scone, Anne and John, contacted me after seeing my mural at the RAAF base in Wagga Wagga.
It was something I had painted for the Centenary, where I had support from the RAAF team in terms of telling really detailed and well-researched stories. I think my passion for telling the stories had come through, and the HFC team wanted to make something that highlighted their significant stories.
After years of hard work and dedication, the team secured grants for the mural from the FRRR Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal and the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs under the ‘Saluting Their Service’ commemorative grants program.
HOW DO YOU DESIGN A MURAL LIKE THIS?
The HCF team delivered so many great stories to me that I just had to read through them and let a few keywords rise to the surface.
Gritty. Ghostly. Heroic. Grandeur. Larger than life.
A beacon of hope. Symbols of strength. Warrior angels.
It sounds abstract, but when you have literally hundreds of thousands of reference images, you need something to ground the design’s direction, or else it can look like a scrapbook of random moments.
WHO IS THE MAIN FIGURE IN THE MURAL?
When it came to selecting local identities, and significant NSW aviation figures - Anne and John, from HFC, knew that Pat Clarence Hughes would be the key figure in the mural.
The Hunter Warbirds collection has so many incredible and “only one in the world” pieces of aircraft. For anyone in Scone, I know it’s easy to become accustomed to local things, but please, revisit the museum because there is nothing like it in the world.
Yet, even among such a unique collection, Pat and his Spitfire have a special place in aviation history. It is almost a mythical level of austerity and significance:
17 aerial victories in the Battle of Britain. Distinguished Flying Cross. Highest scoring Australian Fighter Ace. Innovator of an ultra aggressive fighting style.
His story and effectiveness in battle make him an Australian legend and an icon.
Also, Pat’s story is significant for the next long-term goal of the HFC. To restore Pat’s actual (war-torn) plane from its current state. It currently sits exactly as it was after the war. There are plans to restore it to a flight worthy, historically accurate state. Nothing this epic, or historically significant has ever been accomplished anywhere in the aviation world.
I have hidden his spitfire in the design, behind him, and used elements of war to put together his plane in a silhouette. So that he can be remembered alongside his passion and, in a way, his closest companion; the plane.
WHAT WAS THE PAINTING PROCESS LIKE?
It was brutal. Back in South Australia, I’ve genuinely never even seen frost on my windshield. And on the first morning here in Scone my car looked like an ice cube! I had to google ‘how to safely remove ice from car windows.’ My good friend and painting partner on the project, TaylrJay, has heated seats in her car - genius.
Just the weather down here, it is so unique. Sometimes the radar would have 0% chance of rain…. yet we would end up watching our painting wash away in a random downpour. It made us hyper vigilant in terms of actually watching the clouds rather than the radar.
Something I underestimated, was the difficulty of working with so much corrugated iron. We did so many late-night trips to the wall, with our high beams on. “Does this look weird because of this bump?” “Should we move this part across one bump?” “Is that a bump or am I just so tired that I’m hallucinating a bump?”
I was sandwiched between the beautiful horses at the equine vet across the road, and the incredible aircraft taking off on the other side, and found myself falling in love with Scone. Just nowhere else do you get such diverse pockets of passionate people.
I know I’ll be back again.
Australian Silo Art Trail
