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Bust by Peter Nicholson.Credit:Wikipedia Commons

Nicholson,who has sculpted every prime minister from Malcolm Fraser to Ms Gillard for the council over the past 30 years,said Australia's first female prime minister had been a pleasure to work with compared with Mr Rudd.

It wasn't that Mr Rudd was rude or difficult,just that the sitting occurred in the early days of the global financial crisis.

''When Mr Rudd came for his photographic sitting the car was waiting outside to take him to a meeting with the senior bankers,''he said yesterday.''He was distracted.''

The shape of Mr Rudd's head and that he is always smiling made portraying him a challenge.''A portrait is usually more successful if the subject isn't smiling - and he does have a round face,''Nicholson said.

Ms Gillard,on the other hand,was more relaxed during her sitting and more artistically satisfying.''She is quite a striking-looking person;she has a long,strong neck and a strong bridge to her nose.''

Nicholson said Ms Gillard had been in Melbourne on a break when she did the sitting.''She was very relaxed,very friendly and a good person to work with. I recall she made a joke about her nose and I said it wouldn't be as big as it is in the cartoons.''

He is sorry that the statue was not unveiled while she was still prime minister.''I am very happy with it,''he said.''It came together very quickly and the result is a strong image. I wanted to show somebody who was under pressure but who wasn't beaten down.''

The Melbourne-based artist takes his commissions for the Prime Ministers Walk seriously. He is aware people will be looking at them 100 years from now,long after his other creations have been forgotten.

The last prime minister to unveil his statue in Ballarat was John Howard.

Mr Rudd had been due to unveil his bust on February 17,2010,during a visit for a community cabinet meeting. Cr McIntosh said Mr Rudd had opted out of attending at the last moment. His staff had discovered about 60 protesters,including breast-feeding mothers,were laying in wait to object to changes to home birthing laws.

''Kevin was apparently a little afraid of all the breast-feeding ladies,''said Cr McIntosh,who was at the Botanic Gardens on the day.''He didn't need to be;they weren't very scary at all. I thought they were lovely.''

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