Victoria’s big things: arson, bombings and a baby among little-known stories of Victoria’s most massive marvels
Arson threats, a bombing and even a baby’s birth are just part of the folklore for Victoria’s big things. Find out just how many we have, and some of the crazy events connected with them.
Arson threats, explosions and the odd child being born beneath them are some of the little-known folklore stories behind Victoria’s 40-plus most massive marvels.
From a giant koala and Ned Kelly to a 14m-high Sphinx based on the Egyptian original, the state has a surprising list of big things.
And their value ranges from the tens of thousands of dollars to a whopping $1.5m.
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Many of the mighty monoliths are owned by small businesses or municipal councils, whereas a few have more prominent proprietors – such as Bruno the Big Pheasant at West Gippsland’s Gumbuya World Theme Park.
A consortium including Jayco Caravans’ founder Gerry Ryan, Carsales.com.au founder Wal Pisciotta, Car Megamart director Ray Weinzierl and Campbell Constructions’ directors Adam Campbell and Brett Murray acquired the site before giving it a $50m makeover in 2017.
The people behind some of Victoria’s eye-catching landmarks have revealed some of their wildest tales, like the time a homemade bomb caused more than $50,000 damage to Bruno.
A group calling itself the Revolutionary Council for the Removal of Bad Art in Public Places threatened to set fire to the gigantic interactive dog named FIDO, aka the Fairfield Industrial Dog Object, in Melbourne’s northeastern suburbs after labelling it among Australia’s worst public art works.
Luckily, Bruno was repaired, while FIDO remained unharmed and is now the Fairfield Traders Association’s official logo.
Gumbuya’s wildlife manager Tony Hower, a long-time employee who has held several positions at the Tynong North amusement park including a stint managing the entire site, remembers when the 7.6m-tall Bruno statue’s “bum got blown out of him”.
In 2011, two people allegedly broke in and set off the bomb.
Police arrested a man at the time who was later released.
The idea for the sizeable sculpture, representing a golden pheasant, came about because the amusement park started life as a pheasant farm.
Gumbuya founder and former owner Ron Rado commissioned the concrete and steel bird’s creator Bruno Crestani to bring it to life in 1981.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bruno starred in television advertisements for Gumbuya while pheasants still live in the large aviaries on-site.
“I think people see him almost as like a landmark when heading to Gippsland,” Mr Hower said.
A 2021 public competition to name the bird saw Bruno christened in honour of his creator, with suggestions like Carlos Pheasantana and Pheasant McPheasant Face also submitted.
Bruno has been repainted every decade or so, and since the explosion, new security cameras and lights have been installed to deter vandals.
The owner and general manager of North Geelong’s The Sphinx Hotel, George Ramia, said the replica sphinx had only been repainted twice since its 1995 inception.
“The dirtier and older it looks, the better,” Mr Ramia said.
He said the reason for having the Great Sphinx of Giza’s polystyrene copy on the hotel’s roof along with the lower accompanying statues, hieroglyphics and a mock gold pharaoh’s tomb was simple: to attract more visitors.
He initially asked about five different architects for Sphinx-related concepts and settled on a Queensland firm that had previously worked for Dreamworld.
“It was the last thing I expected,” Mr Ramia said.
“I said, ‘If you can get it through council, we’ll build it.”
The 12-month construction process cost about $1.5m and involved painters and sculptors, with the completed Sphinx brought down from Queensland.
Its opening day saw the hotel’s carpark transformed into a desert with sand trucked in, camel races and celebrity appearances from actor and television presenter Tania Zaetta and Sunrise journalist Mark Beretta.
When the band Invertigo filmed the video for their top 30-charting Australian single Desensitized at the hotel, one of the actors didn’t show so Mr Ramia stepped in and played a casino boss.
The Sphinx Hotel has been previously been on the market with price expectations in the vicinity of $40m or $20m for a 60-year lease of the business.
Another historic figure immortalised in mega-size is bushranger Ned Kelly with statues in Maryborough, Queensland, and at a mini golf course near Ballarat.
But arguably the most famous incarnation is a 1.5 tonne, 6m-tall statue in the Victorian town of Glenrowan, where Kelly lived as a youngster before his infamous last siege took place at a local inn in 1880.
Named after Kelly’s sister Kate, Kate’s Cottage, Gifts & Souvenirs including the Ned Kelly Museum is located opposite the Big Ned.
Now run by Michelle Coad and husband Douglas Stoneman, their predecessors Chris and Rod Gerrett commissioned a Sydney special effects technician to create the statue for approximately $14,000 in 1992.
“It was effectively a donation to the town,” Ms Coad said.
Along with Queensland’s Big Pineapple and NSW’s Big Merino, the Big Ned featured in a limited edition Redheads Matches’ matchbox range of Australian Big Things.
While Big Ned doesn’t technically have an owner, a now-disbanded community group previously repainted the statue and a body corporation of nearby businesses cares for the nearby gardens.
Many of Victoria’s big things are animals, including the 14m-tall Giant Koala souvenir shop and cafe in Dadswells Bridge at the foot of the Grampians.
Dreamt up by former motor inn and roadhouse operators Beryl and Jim Cowling in the 1980s, the bronze, fibreglass and steel structure was made by sculptor Ben Van Zetton.
Public records show the business sold for $220,000 in 2014 and is now run by owner Pat Crute.
Another animal, this one of an aquatic variety, sits atop the Griffiths Sea Shell Museum & Marine Display in Lakes Entrance.
Proprietors Coralie and Max Griffiths are custodians of the steel and fibreglass “Aussie Octopus” with an 8m-wide leg span and total body height from the roof of 4.5m.
Mrs Griffiths said her husband came up with the idea and partially built the octopus while it was sitting on their ladies’ toilet block roof “much to the encouragement and hilarity of neighbouring motel and caravan park clientele and owners”.
“Aussie took two years to complete and in 1994 was air-lifted by crane onto the front roof, where he sits today,” Mrs Griffiths said.
“He is very popular and photogenic, he is also our registered trademark.”
Closer to Melbourne is canine sculpture FIDO near Fairfield’s railway station.
Standing at 5.5m-tall, the dog was erected as part of Darebin Council’s Public Art Program with a $50,000 price tag, circa 2000.
Interim council chief executive Michael Tudball said artists Ian Sinclair, Jackie Staude and David Davies, plus architect and designer Alistair Knox, created the work.
“It has sensors so that when people walk past it triggers it to bark, wag its tail and at night, light up,” Mr Tudball said.
Fortunately, the Revolutionary Council for the Removal of Bad Art in Public Places never followed through with their 2003 threat to set FIDO ablaze.
About 60km away, Langwarrin’s McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery is home to more than 100 sculptural works, some of them quite large.
A famous inhabitant is a 10m-high stainless steel gnome by sculptor Gregor Kregar officially named Reflective Lullaby and dubbed Frankie by locals.
The gallery’s artistic and executive director, Lisa Byrne, said Frankie was made under a sculpture commission program funded by the Peninsula Link Freeway builder Southern Way.
It sees sculptures commissioned for two sites along the freeway, to be alternated every few years before becoming part of McClelland’s permanent collection.
Ms Byrne said Frankie was moved to the park a year ago, after his freeway tenure saw fun-loving community members occasionally put groups of smaller gnomes around him and dress him up for Christmas.
“One year he had a beanie for the grand final, I believe it was Hawthorn,” Ms Byrne said.
She noted the $300,000 commission to create Frankie was mainly spent on production and planning approvals, with a minimal artists’ fee.
Ms Byrne said rain was handy for washing Frankie while gallery staff also polish him yearly.
“He is a favourite for visitors to have a photo taken with, or to just sit on the chair near him and gaze at him in awe is a favourite past-time,” she said.
On Sunday (October 13) the gallery will celebrate one year since Frankie was moved from the freeway to the park.
From 10.30am to 4pm, visitors will get free entry to the sculpture park and there will also be creative gnome-inspired activities.
Details: https://mcclelland.org.au/
BORN BENEATH THE BIG BIRD
Most children are born in a hospital or at home, not under a theme park’s big bird.
But that particular honour is 10-year-old Indie’s claim to fame.
A decade ago, her mother Belinda Denney was expecting a somewhat textbook birth, much like when Indie’s older sister Harlie came into the world.
But after Ms Denney woke up with contractions, her husband Tom called the hospital.
Staff advised him to ring for an ambulance and prepare in case it turned into a home birth.
“The paramedics said, ‘Do you think you can make it to hospital?’” Ms Denney said.
“Ten minutes down the road they had to pull over and she was born.”
The ambulance officers parked near Gumbuya World Theme Park’s gigantic pheasant sculpture to deliver Indie, who weighed 10 pounds, or 4.53kg, at the time.
Years later, the youngster celebrated her fourth birthday at Gumbuya where she fulfilled her bucket list item of feeding a kangaroo, alongside Harlie.
“My family live in Gippsland and when we go past the park she always says, ‘That’s where I was born’,” Ms Denney said.
“Usually for most children that’s a hospital but for Indie it’s a big bird.”
A 2021 competition to name the Gumbuya Big Pheasant saw it dubbed Bruno after creator Bruno Crestani, but Indie placed second – so the family fondly call the bird “Indie”.
Nowadays, the human Indie is something of a bird aficionado, serving as chicken keeper at her school.
And after her speedy birth – which amounted to just 10 minutes of active labour time – Ms and Mr Denney arrived at the hospital in plenty of time before their third child, Jack, was born.
VICTORIA’S BIG THINGS
Big Bees, Eureka Tower, 7 Riverside Quay, Southbank
Big Beer Glass, 1 Baromi Rd, Mirboo North
Big Bogong Moth, Jim Newman’s Lookout, Murray River Rd, Tintaldra
Big Brake Shoes, Clintons Rd, Smiths Gully
Big Chocolate Bar, Chocolate Grove, 50 Aster Ave, Carrum Downs
Big Chook, Myrtlebank Roaming Farms, 1030 Maffra-Sale Rd, Myrtlebank
Big Coffee Maker, Georges Gourmet Coffee, 340 Victoria St Brunswick
Big Dog FIDO (Fairfield Industrial Dog Object), Wingrove St, Fairfield
Big Elf, Fairy Park, 2388 Ballan Rd, Anakie
Big Flower, Flowers @ Junction, 2455 Warburton Highway, Yarra Junction
Big Golf Ball, The Spring Valley Golf Club, 619 Heatherton Road, Clayton South
Big Gnome aka Frankie, official name Reflective Lullaby, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin
Big Koala, 1821 Phillip Island Rd, Cowes
Big Lizard, Gallipoli Park, 6 Murchison St, Marysville
Big Lizzie (a tractor), 30-34 Jacaranda St, Red Cliffs
Big Lotus Flower, 3 Bridge St, Bendigo
Big Mallee Bull, Cumming Ave, Birchip
Big Mallee Fowl, Patchewollock
Big Miner, Gold Rush Mini Golf, 4/9367 Western Highway, Warrenheip
Big Magpie, Euroa Park, corner of Clifton St and Kirkland Ave, Euroa
Big Mouth, Luna Park, 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
Big Ned Kelly, corner of Gladstone and Kate streets, Glenrowan
Another Big Ned Kelly, Gold Rush Mini Golf, 4/9367 Western Highway, Warrenheip
Big Octopus aka The Aussie Octopus, Griffiths Sea Shell Museum and Marine Display, 125 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance
Big Petition, Burston Reserve, MacArthur St, Melbourne
Big Pheasant aka Bruno, Gumbuya World Theme Park, 2705 Princes Highway, Tynong North
Big Rolling Pin, Henri’s Wodonga Bakery, 57 Hovell St, Wodonga
Big Shovel, just north of the Hume Freeway exit, Chiltern
Big Shoe, Moorooduc Highway, Baxter
Big Sphinx, The Sphinx Hotel, 2 Thompson Rd, North Geelong
Big Sprout, Adams Farms, 681 Maroondah Highway, Coldstream
Big Strawberry, 7034 Goulburn Valley Highway, Koonoomoo
Big Tap, A Maze N Things Theme Park, at 1805 Phillip Island Road Cowes
Big Trout, Stony Creek Fish Farm, 10 Stony Creek Rd, Harrietville
Big Watermelon, 1161 High Street Rd, Wantirna South
Big Wave, 10 Phillip Island Rd, Newhaven
Big Wheelbarrow, Aintree Close, Clyde
Big Wine Bottle (a water tower with a top shaped as a wine bottle), Hunter St, Rutherglen
Ernie the Giant Tractor Salesman, Midland Highway, Shepparton
Giant Koala, 5829 Western Highway, Dadswells Bridge
Giant Murray Cod, 139 Curlewis St, Swan Hill
Giant Pocket Watch, Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, corner LaTrobe and Swanston streets, Melbourne
Giant Potatoes and Forks, The Spud Shed, Princes Highway and Rankins Rd, Trafalgar
Skipping Girl, 651 Victoria St, Abbotsford
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Originally published as Victoria’s big things: arson, bombings and a baby among little-known stories of Victoria’s most massive marvels
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