Scott Marsh – Raising Flags
- Mar 31
- 7 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
We catch up with controversial muralists and Newtown favourite Scott Marsh to chat about life, the limelight and his latest work, Island Boys.
Scott Marsh is a talented mural painter and satirist whose large artworks on the side of walls around Sydney create conversations - and often cause controversy. Marsh uses acerbic humour on his detailed canvasses to address important contemporary social issues.
Several feature prominently on the side of houses and cafes in and around Newtown and Sydney’s Inner West.
By Alec Smart
How long does it take him to paint his murals, and does he have to hire scaffolding?
“It depends on the size, the amount of detail etc.,” he explains. “I work off a big ladder for works up to about 4 metres, above that I usually hire a scissor lift. A single figure would take two-and-a-half days. “The latest Epstein mural has a number of figures and a lot of detail; it took me approximately 8 days to complete. 90% of my political murals are self-funded projects and can cost me $1000s in materials and access gear. I probably end up painting only 10% of the ideas I would like to, due to these constraints.”
Marsh’s latest piece, ‘Island Boys’, revealed on Valentine’s Day 2026, is situated on the rear external wall of the Botany View Hotel in Newtown. The large-scale cartoon features convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein near-naked on a beach on one of the two islands he owned in the Caribbean with his friend and ‘fixer’, fellow convict Ghislaine Maxwell.
Alongside them are several close associates who frequently attended their notorious parties: US President Donald Trump, disgraced British Royal Prince Andrew, former president Bill Clinton, and Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates.
It must be hard to find available walls for his amazing but frequently contentious murals. Does he scout the locations and ask householders if they are amenable. Or do they contact him?
“Finding wall space suitable to a particular work is always the biggest challenge,” he confirms. “Sometimes people reach out and say, ‘Hey I have a wall and an idea’. Or, ‘I have a wall, do whatever you want!’ That’s my favourite!
“Sometimes I find the perfect wall and knock on the door. It’s a bit of a mixed bag.”
It was sad to see the painting over of his Tony Abbott marriage mural in Alexandria in November 2024, which mocked then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s hostility to same-sex marriage. (Abbott’s own sister, Christine Forster, was at the time in a lesbian relationship and later married her partner. Abbott attended the wedding.)
Is that the longest-lasting of Marsh’s public murals?
“Tony got a great run, eight years,” Marsh considers. “He survived a difficult period when a lot of my murals where being attacked and destroyed by both fanatical religious groups and left-wing activists alike. There are a handful of works around Chippendale that have been up for 5+ years (eg: Bin Chickens in Teggs Lane; George Pell the ball-tamperer; Alan Jones’ ball gag mural).”
Marsh’s canvases sometimes attract the ire of those who have contrasting opinions, and his artworks are occasionally vandalised or painted over. The latter includes the June 2020 censorship of a Redfern mural depicting a burning NSW police van.
The artwork referenced TJ Hickey, a 17-year-old Kamilaroi Aboriginal boy who died in suspicious circumstances on 14 Feb 2004. He was impaled on a spiked fence at the Waterloo Towers housing estate following a police chase through Redfern that was a case of mistaken identity.
The principal police officers in two vehicles pursuing TJ refused to testify at a coronial inquiry into the boy’s death. Marsh’s artwork was covered over by City of Sydney Council authorities only 19 hours after it was painted, following a NSW Police request.
Is the cheeky George Michael halo painting in Erskineville still in place? What about the Palestinian flag solidarity fist on the side of Cairo Takeaway in Enmore?
“Yes St George 2.0 is still standing and should be there as long as that building stands. Cairo's fist is also still standing and both have protective coatings on them, so they are pretty indestructible.”
Does he often have to touch-up paintings after vandals damage them – like his February 2023 World Pride painting in Wynyard? “Yes I regularly have to fix up works that get attacked,” he confirms.
Neighbourhood Media has previously featured Scott Marsh, who, when asked then about the vandals who sabotage his artworks, replied, “Ironically in every case to date when a mural is destroyed it blows up online and in the media, and is seen by 10000s more eyeballs. So, it’s pretty counter-productive for the d***head who destroyed the original artwork!”
Unfortunately, Marsh’s Island Boys mural in Newtown has recently been vandalised by someone who objected to the Epstein caricature wearing Israeli flag underpants, which the vandal covered with black paint.
Criticism of Israel is a taboo subject in Australia with politicians criminalising support for Palestine and preventing criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Does Marsh think people are starting to realise the elephant in the room – that the whole disgusting Epstein child molesting racket was a sextortion operation run by Mossad?
“Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Israel intelligence are very well documented,” Marsh asserts, “so it's difficult to wrap my head around the controversy other than any criticism of Israel seems to be out of bounds to a loud minority.”
Has he received any threats or hate-mail from Zionists accusing him of ‘Anti-Semitism’ for daring to include the Israeli flag in his Epstein & Trump ‘Island Boys’ mural?
“Yes, it's relentless,” he reveals. “I have painted murals criticizing the governments/leaders of China, USA, Russia and Australia, but if I dare criticize Israel, the murals are immediately destroyed/censored. There is also a lot of drama that goes on behind the scenes, from physical threats, stalkers, legal letters, police dramas, etc.”
In Queensland, the conservative Liberal government has just introduced a new ‘hate speech’ law that defines slogans such as ‘From the river to the sea’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada [Palestinian resistance]’ as criminal, carrying a penalty of up to two years in prison.
“We are supposed to be a democracy, that means everyone is open to criticism,” Marsh insists. However, regarding his own prospects he is pessimistic. “It's only a matter of time before I end up in court or jail over some of these new 'Hate Speech' laws. We live in very strange times!”
Postscript:
On 6 January 2026, the Human Rights Law Centre determined “Queensland’s new ‘hate speech’ law (a last-minute amendment by Premier David Crisafulli to the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026) “undermines the rights to freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression, and equality before the law. It is inconsistent with international human rights law…”
The Queensland Govt criminalised the sentence "From the river to the sea," because it's a common, decades-old liberation slogan among Palestinians, which Premier David Crisafulli insists is an incitement to terrorism.
It's like "Our day will come" ("Tiochfaidh ár lá" in Gaelic) that was popularised in the 1970s as the Irish slogan for resistance to British rule.
Apparently Crisafulli is too dim to realise “river to the sea” is the chorus to a very popular song by Australian pop icon John Farnham.
On 27 March 2026, Scott Marsh revealed on social media that he had painted a controversial new mural in Queensland.
Situated in Peel Street, South Brisbane (the cultural district that includes Queensland Museum, State Library and Performing Arts Centre), the artwork featured the words “River to the Sea”, alongside a painting of John Farnham.
The words are featured in the chorus of the song Two Strong Hearts (written by Andy Hill and Bruce Woolley), which John Farnham recorded and released as the second single from his 13th studio album, Age of Reason (1988).
In announcing his artwork, Marsh stated: “Did you know that the music video to John Farnham’s “Two Strong Hearts” was filmed in 1988 on Queensland’s Gold Coast? Today in 2026 you could land yourself in jail for 2 years for singing (or painting) his lyrics in a public space.”
In 1998 Farnham and fellow Aussie icon Olivia Newton-John, the highest-selling female Australian recording artist of all time, first duetted in concert on Farnham’s song Two Strong Hearts, and again during a nationwide tour in 2015.
The song lyrics state: “We've got two strong hearts, reaching out forever like a river to the sea (river to the sea), you and me…”
After Marsh painted his mural, Queensland artist Nordacious, who had also incorporated the lyrics in a painting ridiculing Queensland Premier David Crisafulli for criminalising what is already a famous song lyric, was visited by Queensland Police and threatened with prosecution.
Nordacious later released a statement, in which he said: “There’s something genuinely destabilising about being told your art is illegal. That the things you’ve illustrated – out of empathy, out of grief, out of a deep and sincere desire to see justice for people who have been crushed by systems more powerful than them – could theoretically land you in prison…
“I stand against bigotry in every form… including the injustice being visited upon the Palestinian people.”
Shortly afterwards, in the early hours of 29 March 2026, unidentified censors covered over the ‘threatening’ sentence in Marsh’s artwork in South Brisbane.
However, the following night, another graffiti artist wrote the words back into the space from which they’d been erased.
SCOTT MARSH
Website: https://scottmarsh.com.au
Facebook: https://facebook.com.au/scottmarshart
Instagram: https://instagram.com/scottie.marsh
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u88136664
X/Twitter: https://x.com/scottie_marsh
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