Scaled back Tennant Creek lizard sculpture finally sees light of day after nine-year battle
The NT Government has unveiled the nyinkka lizard sculpture in Tennant Creek, ending a nine-year saga marked by contract disputes. Read more.
A long-awaited and contentious nyinkka lizard sculpture project in Tennant Creek was unveiled nine years after its inception this week.
The giant nine metre nyinkka lizard was revealed at the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Cultural Centre in a ceremony attended by the NT Chief Minister and Ministers during cabinet in Tennant Creek.
The giant lizard sits next to the Stuart Highway.
It marks the end to a long battle since the project was first committed to by the former NT Labor Government in 2016.
Originally, there were supposed to be two lizards built and placed at Tennant Creek’s north and south Stuart Highway entrance.
However a contract dispute with the sculptor Steve Langton delayed the project for years which he later revealed took an enormous toll on his emotional and physical health.
The CLP Government eventually announced that the project had been scaled back in April and only one of the completed lizards would be placed in Tennant Creek.
At the time a spokeswoman for chief minister Lia Finocchiaro refused to say how much the project cost but said they had come to a “revised contractual arrangement” where one lizard would be provided on an ‘as is where is’ basis.
Earlier this year, Mr Langton said the other lizard might be sold to recover costs while the decision to only place one sculpture attracted criticism from Barkly Regional Council mayor Sid Vashist.
Member for Barkly, Steve Edgington, gathered to mark the occasion.
He said that is was good to see the sculpture in its “rightful home”.
“Our government is proud to partner with Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Nyinkka Nyunyu Steering Committee to deliver the Nyinkka to its rightful home in Tennant Creek which is the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art & Cultural Centre,” he said on Facebook.
It is unclear how much the sculptures ended up costing.
Mr Langton’s initial sign-on fee for the project was $300,000 as part of an overall $2m package for the Barkly, but it’s not clear whether this remained in tact following the breakdown of the project.
