Over 50 people gathered at the Buslines bus depot in Lismore on Friday November 11 to welcome a bus bearing a new colourful design, on its first regular run between Lismore, Coraki and Evans Head.

The bus, which is part of the regular Buslines fleet, is also the centerpiece of the Travelling Art Project, a collaboration between Transport NSW, Arts Northern Rivers, Northern Rivers Buslines and North Coast TAFE, designed to promote the use of public transport by local Indigenous people.

The central image of the design on the bus is the spiritual totem of the Bundjalung nation, a goanna wrestling with a snake, which is a product of work by Goori students studying Certificate 4 in Visual Arts at Lismore TAFE. The image has been transferred to the bus via a large sticker, applied by Townsend Signs from Sydney.

The Travelling Art Project was launched by Bundjalung Elder Aunty Hazel Rhodes, who praised the work of all those involved in the initiative.

Also present at the bus's inaugural run were Bundjalung elders, representatives of the key partner organisations and Deputy Mayor of Lismore Isaac Smith, many of whom took up bus driver Willie Smith's invitation to climb aboard and take a quick tour through Lismore's streets.