The Big Brolga

The brolga is a good choice for North Queensland and a better one than it first appears. It is a tall grey crane, well over a metre high in life, famous for an elaborate leaping courtship dance, and it is genuinely common across the wetlands and coastal plains of the north. Unlike a great many Big Things, this one depicts an animal a visitor might actually see on the drive in.

The relocation is why the record classes it as historical rather than simply active. It is still standing and still public, but it is no longer where it was built to be, and the sightline that justified its position – highway traffic, visitor centre, stop here – is gone. Queensland tourism still promotes a Big Brolga south of Townsville, and specialist evidence places the relocated sculpture at the sporting complex, which is a mismatch worth knowing about before driving to the old spot.

A sculpture that outlives its original purpose and gets adopted by a sports ground has done better than most. The park is even named for it now, which is a form of promotion the visitor centre never managed.