Work has commenced on a new public mural set to bring the colours of Country to the Wangaratta Railway Station underpass.

Curated and produced by Melbourne-based public art and placemaking studio Juddy Roller, the large-scale mural which will wrap around a concrete wall of the underpass has been designed by First Nations artist Tommy Day.

When completed, the Inland Rail-commissioned mural will create a vibrant, immersive and welcoming gateway to the city.

Titled 'Mirring Leerpeen' ('Country's Song'), the artwork will span both sides of the underpass, and draw inspiration from the colours, rhythms and landscapes of Country.

Tommy is being supported in its installation this week by renowned portrait artist Matt Adnate, with whom he has worked for the past six years and who is known for creating the tallest mural in the southern hemisphere, on a Collingwood public housing tower.

Tommy said his aim through the mural was to celebrate Wangaratta and its surrounds.

"I've taken inspiration from the colour palette of the area - those great sunrises and sunsets which can turn a gum leaf to gold," he said.

"In creating the design, I was also thinking of people's stories in this place; everyone has a story to tell, and Country has always held the memory of the people who have been here.

"So what sort of memories do you want it to hold?"

Tommy said he hoped that as people moved through the underpass to begin or end their journeys, the artwork would remind them of the colours of home.

"The movement across the wall reflects travel across the landscape and Country, following a songline. In that spirit, the work becomes a point of origin, a place where journeys begin," he said.

Born in Shepparton, Tommy grew up in Heywood, in south-west Victoria.

"In some ways, I'm semi-local, and coming from Heywood - which is a town of about 900 people - regional towns are very familiar to me," he said.

"So it feels really good to be here."

Tommy said it was exciting to view the blank canvas of the concrete underpass walls and know what was to come.

"It's great too, because people can move through and see it happen," he said.

"Artworks like this in regional towns are really important, because they become place markers, and become attached to people's identity.

"I really hope people take ownership of the mural, because you're really producing it for them.

"Ultimately, I'm a storyteller, and driven by the thought that every place and person has a story to tell.

"People are here because they love to be here or something brings them here, so the uniting factor is the place itself."

While he's made it his career over the past six years, Tommy said he had always been an artist - even while working as a chief executive officer in Heywood.

"Even in meetings, I'd be sitting there doodling and people would wonder if I was listening, but that was the way I understood things: through iconography," he said.

"Now, I get to do it for a living."

Tommy said the mural was, for his artistic career, a full-circle moment.

He was given his first opportunity to work at this scale through Juddy Roller and Adnate, on a water tower project in Heywood in 2021.

"To now be leading a major public artwork on Country, with that same support behind me, is incredibly meaningful," he said.

Juddy Roller founder and project curator Shaun Hossack said the artwork built on recent state and federal government investment in the Wangaratta Railway Station precinct, ensuring the new infrastructure also delivered lasting cultural and community value.