A Wicksey-Vickers collab has brought colourful relief to Ōamaru’s newest and possibly most talked-about toilet block.

North Otago artists Matthew Wicks and Tracey Vickers were commissioned by the Waitaki District Council to cover the mustard Exeloo toilet block at Awamoa Park with their signature styles.

The $422,000 cost of the replacement toilets has drawn comment from various corners of the community, particularly on social media.

The council was given $172,000 from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Tourism Infrastructure Fund, to replace the former toilet block, which had reached the end of its useful life. The council put in the remaining $250,000.

Tracey said she and Wicksey wanted to both bring their skill sets to the project.

She was responsible for the drawings, and Wicksey has added his “colour magic”, she said.

“I'm so excited because it really highlights, like both of our skills, which is what, what you aim for with a collab, so yeah.”

The pair were first asked to carry out the job back in April, but the majority of the work had happened quite recently and took them about three weeks to complete, she said.

Their artwork was printed onto vinyl decals and applied onto the walls on Monday (December 18) by Dean Sutherland and Maurice Ireland, of Ireland Signs Limited.

“I was quite flattered to be offered to do it,” Tracey said, “because it was such, like a, you know . . . everyone knew about the toilet!

“So we had to be careful, but at the same time we wanted it to be . . . we definitely wanted it to be colourful.”

Tracey created her drawings to work in with the landscaping planned for the same site, using native plants such as lancewood.

“I hope people enjoy it. Like, I hope it's just a good response, you know, because that's what we aimed for. We just wanted something that was going to be joyful for the community.

“It's a prettier place than it was before.”​

A council spokesperson said on Monday, the costs for the project were so far coming in under budget, with the build - including demolition and reinstatement of land where the old block was costing $101,000, supply and delivery of the prefab toilets at $156,000, engineering, compliance and associated work $36,000 and services $35,000. The final cost will be available once landscaping is complete.

Dean Sutherland of Ireland Signs Limited applying the vinyl to the Awamoa Park toilet block. Photo: Ashley Smyth