Throughout February, Lismore residents and those passing through will have seen two giant dancing brolgas - one 12 metres tall - and three sheep appear on the water tower, located on the Warrnambool side of the Hamilton Highway at the Lismore Golf Course.

Once a blank canvas, the water tower was sandblasted and sealed before Buscombe got stuck into the project, which lasted about three weeks.

"Being my first tower and first project of this scale, it's been an absolute stab in the dark so I'm pretty happy with the way it has progressed," the Warrnambool artist said.

The artist, who is nationally recognised for Warrnambool's 'Gutsy' the wombat, has spent 15 nine-hour days on the water tower, with some breaks in between due to inclement weather.

He said the biggest challenge was working out how to use a two-kilogram paint gun.

"I'm using a Wagner spray gun which is like one you'd use on a house. It weighs two kilograms and holds a litre of paint," Buscombe said.

"I didn't have much practice so I just went in with all guns blazing."

Another challenge was Buscombe overcoming his fear of heights.

"For 47 years I've been absolutely petrified of heights and then suddenly I had to be 15 metres in the air," he said.

"The first time I went up, I had the shakes for about an hour.

"Then for the next two days I had varying degrees of adrenaline going the whole time but by the third day I didn't even think about it.

"Now I just go up for a look around because there's such a beautiful view from up there."

Buscombe said he had received a lot of visitors at the water tower, including a German backpacker.

"It's exactly what you would hope - that this would drag people to the town," he said.

-The Standard