Outback giant yabby Australia's latest 'big thing'
Australia's "big things" are a common sight on a road trip, dotting highways and country towns, and a Queensland town has just added its own.
A giant yabby statue now stands in Windorah, 1,200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane.
The big yabby was unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Albert Street. (Supplied: Barcoo Shire Council)
It is a fitting addition to the town with a population of 100, best known for hosting "international yabby races", Barcoo Shire Mayor Sally O'Neil said.
"[At] Cooper Creek … you will pull up, go fishing, and you're bound to get a yabby or two, or five or more," she said.
Yabby races are a fixture on the annual Windorah social calendar. (ABC Western Qld: Heidi Sheehan)
It joins the collection of Australia's big crustaceans, including Ballina's big prawn and Cardwell's big crab, as well as other big things representing towns like Bowen's big mango, Tully's big gumboot and Woombye's big pineapple.
There are now several big crustaceans in Australia, like Ballina's Big Prawn.
Cr O'Neil said she hoped the $13,000 state-funded project would catch the eye of the town's next tourist.
"Hopefully it'll pull the tourists up and they may hang around an extra day … it's good for economic development of the communities out west,"
she said.
For Toowoomba artist — and now yabby sculptor — Jobella Bennett, the project reflects her journey into the artistic community, picking up the job after she began hosting classes in the central west.
"I got rung up and they [the council] were like, 'Could you make a yabby?'" she said.
"And I was like, 'Yeah, how big?'
"And they were like, 'As big as you can make it.'"
Jobella Bennett created the yabby with sheet metal and wire. (Supplied: Jobella Bennett)
Taking three months to build, measuring in at 4.6 metres and constructed from bird wire and sheet metal, the yabby is the largest artwork Ms Bennet has made.
"It's my first big project, I learned a lot," she said.
"I do a lot of research when I'm making anything that's new to me … so I did a bit of yabby research and just started making."
Ms Bennett said she hoped to work on more "big things", adding that it was important communities supported artistic creations.
"There's so many amazing artists out there and it's really nice that councils or the communities or whoever's organised it is actually backing artists," she said.
Crowds gather in Windorah to watch the yabby races. (ABC Western Qld: Heidi Sheehan)
Australia has professionalised 'big things'
University of the Sunshine Coast history lecturer Amy Clarke said while "big things" were also common in countries like Canada and the United States, Australia was bucking the trend in continuing to build more.
"Australia is still pedal to the floor, kind of, 'Let's build as many of them as we can,'" Dr Clarke said.
Jobella Bennett creates nature-inspired sculptures by hand. (Supplied: Jobella Bennett)
She said support for new statues across the country reflected their community involvement in comparison to the commercial incentive behind many American statues.
"And it is often the case that it is really a kind of group project," Dr Clarke said.
"It's often a chamber of commerce or the local council or a local charity group that's come together and said, 'How can we really celebrate and champion our town, and get people to come out here and visit us?'"
She said since the trend first began in the 1960s, it had become more official over time.
"We've now seen over time a professionalisation of big things," she said.
"We now have a number of companies and professional fibreglass artists that specialise in making these sorts of giant objects.
"And you can tell as well when you look at them that they're intended to be quite artistic."
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