After constant delays due to weather, the persistence of Leading Senior Constable Lucas Paul paid off on Thursday 16 October as a team of over 100 community members took to their brushes and rollers to bringing a long-dead gum tree to life.
The Blue Tree Project has been dodging rain since August with several delays, but it was all sunshine when students from Euroa joined local police and council staff to produce a new landmark on the outskirts of town.
The tree now joins hundreds of others across Australia as part of the nation-wide Blue Tree Project which began in 2019 to more than just raise awareness of mental health, but to start and then keep going those important conversations.
The project has spread to other countries, with almost 1500 trees now painted blue worldwide, to stand as reminder sentinels outside of regional and rural towns.
Students from Euroa's primary and secondary schools gave the tree some of the first dabs of blue paint along with local police, before council staff took the hue all the way to the top with some sizeable roller poles.
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The tree is now unmistakable on the Euroa-Shepparton Road, directly opposite the saleyards, its purposeful colour the kick starter for important conversations.
"Why is that tree blue?"
