This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 32.2612° S, 150.8891° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Australian Cattle Dog was developed in the Hunter Valley, and Muswellbrook has put up two tonnes of argument that this is where it belongs.
The breed came out of nineteenth-century attempts to produce a dog that could move cattle over long distances in Australian heat and country – work that is closely associated with the Hall family's holdings in the Upper Hunter, and from which the dogs long known as Hall's Heelers descended. The blue-mottled coat that gives the Blue Heeler its name traces to that development. It is a working animal before it is anything else, and its reputation is for endurance and stubbornness rather than charm.
Muswellbrook first commemorated it in 2001. The sculpture standing today is later and larger: a two-metre, half-tonne bronze by the artist Brett Garling, unveiled in 2016 as a lasting tribute to the breed and its place in the pastoral history of the Upper Hunter. It is known locally as Bluey, or as Hunter.
Bronze is a notable choice. Almost every animal in this catalogue is fibreglass, painted and repainted; a cast bronze dog is a permanent public monument in the traditional sense, which is a considered statement about how seriously the town takes the claim.
One practical caution. The NSW Government currently lists Big Blue at 148 Bridge Street, but Muswellbrook Shire Council has previously identified that roadside setting as constrained for safe public viewing and proposed relocating the sculpture near Weidmann Cottage. No source located in this research pass confirms the relocation has happened, so check locally before travelling for it.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
NSW Government currently lists Big Blue at 148 Bridge Street. Muswellbrook Shire Council has previously identified the current roadside setting as constrained for safe public viewing and proposed a relocation near Weidmann Cottage; no current source located in this research pass confirms that relocation has occurred.
ACCESS
For a conservative visit, navigate to Muswellbrook Visitor Information Centre at Weidmann Cottage, 132 Bridge Street, park legally there or nearby, and approach the Blue Heeler on foot. Do not stop beside the statue on Bridge Street.
