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A giant chicken perched on a pole in Moonbi Park, a long-running New England Big Thing associated with the town's poultry history and community celebrations.
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This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
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The Big Chook
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 31.0190° S, 151.0699° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Big Chook began as a parade float.
In 1982 Moonbi Public School celebrated its centenary with a street parade, and Tom Baker built a giant chicken from papier-mâché as a tribute to the area's poultry industry. It proved popular enough that once the festivities were over he donated it to the Moonbi Development Group, and it stayed. That is a much more common origin for Australian Big Things than the tourism literature suggests – a great many of them were built for one afternoon and simply never taken down.
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PRACTICAL
Plan your stop
WHAT TO EXPECT
Current specialist sources place the Big Chook in Moonbi Park at 41 Gill Street. Recent research traces the present sculpture to a 1982 school-centenary parade float, although older Big Things lists commonly give a 1970s origin, so the exact early chronology remains source-conflicted.
ACCESS
Navigate to Moonbi Park at 41 Gill Street and use legal park access before viewing the Big Chook on foot.
COMMUNITY
Visitor Log
WHAT'S NEXT
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TRANSPARENCY
Sources & research
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