The Big Bobtail

Rammed earth is a remarkable choice. It is compacted soil, layered and exposed so the strata show, and it is used for walls rather than for figures. Carving a nine-metre animal out of it means shaping something with no tensile strength at all, which is why the form is low, broad and ground-hugging – exactly the proportions a bobtail has anyway. The material and the subject happen to want the same shape.

Antoniuk is described in the source as the Yagan memorial artist, which places him within a significant and difficult body of Western Australian public work.

A February 2026 Big Things field listing confirms the sculpture survives at Stirk Street, and City of Kalamunda material identifies 10 Stirk Street as the artist's former gallery property, with current City engagement material still citing the Big Bobtail as a recognised local artwork.

That status – surviving on what is now former gallery land – is worth flagging. An artwork on private property whose owner has moved on is in a more precarious position than a council-owned one, and the record marks access as restricted accordingly.

This is the second bobtail in the catalogue, alongside the one at Kuju Aboriginal Arts in Port Lincoln.