The Mighty Mulloway

Yalata, South Australia, Australia

Public art

Current – limited access

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is still here, but public access is limited. Check the access notes for details before visiting.

A two-metre, 200-kilogram mulloway sculpture unveiled at Yalata Roadhouse in July 2026.

Limited access
Check the access notes for details before visiting
Service centre stop
P
Parking
onsite

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Service centre

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The Mighty Mulloway

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 31.4962° S, 131.8123° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The Mighty Mulloway went up at Yalata in July 2026, and it was bought by the community it stands in.

Yalata is an Anangu community on the far west coast of South Australia, at the edge of the Nullarbor. Its lands cover roughly 450,000 hectares and span about 150 kilometres of the Eyre Highway, running east to Fowlers Bay, west past the Head of Bight toward the Western Australian border, and north along the Trans-Australian Railway past Ooldea and Maralinga. The community was established in 1952, and visitation has been limited ever since.

The sculpture is two metres tall, weighs 200 kilograms, and is bronze. The Yalata Anangu Aboriginal Corporation purchased it along with a tourist road sign, and unveiled it at the Y-STOP Roadhouse, which the community also owns and manages.

The intent was set out plainly at the unveiling. Uncle Fabian Peel said the idea was to put up a statue of the mulloway and open up fishing to the public. Mulloway are a large, prized coastal fish taken along this stretch of coast, and the sculpture is an invitation attached to a specific offer.

The community's chief executive David White put the balance well: the community is closed, but not one hundred per cent closed. Yalata proper remains permit-only. The roadhouse, and now the fish outside it, are the part that is open – a deliberate, community-controlled point of contact on a highway that thousands of people cross every year without stopping.

The Eyre Highway crossing takes most travellers past Yalata without stopping, and that is the gap the sculpture addresses. A community with a permit system controlling access to its lands has still found a way to offer something at the roadside on its own terms.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

ABC Eyre Peninsula reports that the Yalata Anangu Aboriginal Corporation unveiled the Mighty Mulloway in July 2026 as a tourism initiative. The community-owned Y-STOP Roadhouse is current, open seven days and provides parking, food, fuel and visitor amenities.

ACCESS

Navigate only to Y-STOP Yalata Roadhouse. Yalata Community itself is closed to general public access and entry beyond approved visitor areas requires permission or permits.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

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Roadside giants

98 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

ABC Eyre Peninsula – Mighty Mulloway unveiling

ABC News · recorded 2026-08-22

July 2026 report of unveiling at Yalata Roadhouse.

News

South Australia Tourism – Y-STOP Yalata Roadhouse

South Australian Tourism Commission · recorded 2026-08-22

Current official host-site listing.

Tourism

Yalata Anangu Aboriginal Corporation

Yalata Anangu Aboriginal Corporation · recorded 2026-08-22

First-party access and permit context for Yalata Lands.

Official

What we're still checking

Open-licence image search completed 24 August 2026. No defensible reusable image with file-level commercial-use provenance was verified in the completed Commons, government/open-licence and archival/open-collection sweep.

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