The work of two Queensland Indigenous artists will adorn a tilt train travelling from Brisbane to Cairns.

The artworks will be recreated digitally to cover the train like a second skin.

They will cover seven carriages and two locomotives stretching 185 metres, making it Australia’s largest piece of contemporary Indigenous art.

The artwork of Brisbane-based Judy Watson and Alick Tipoti from Badu Island in the Torres Strait will feature on the tilt train.

Ms Watson’s designs are based on etchings she did while on Heron Island, off Gladstone in central Queensland.

Mr Tipoti’s designs are animal trails and tracks, depicting the movement of animals and sea life, as well as the flight of migratory birds unique to the Torres Strait off the state’s far north.

The first of the two painted tilt trains should be on the tracks by the end of the year.