Big Globe – Ulverstone

Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia

Roadside giants

✓

Current

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A larger-than-life terrestrial globe in Shropshire Park at Ulverstone.

Before you stop

No formal car park -- kerbside stopping on a quiet street only; do not block driveways or the road.

Street parking

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Street parking

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

A free Explorer account reveals the exact recommended arrival point.

Big Globe – Ulverstone

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

Approximate location · 41.153° S, 146.170° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The globe in Shropshire Park is not really about geography. It is about a warship.

The garden it stands in was built to honour the crew of HMAS Shropshire, the heavy cruiser that served the Royal Australian Navy through the Second World War, and the globe details the activities of the RAN during that conflict. So the surface of the world here is functioning as a map of where Australian sailors went – which is a far more specific brief than a decorative planet.

HMAS Shropshire earned the memorial. She was transferred to Australia in 1943 to replace HMAS Canberra, lost at Savo Island, and went on to serve through the Pacific campaign including the Philippines landings and the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay. A Tasmanian town naming its riverside garden for her is a considered act.

The globe was built in the mid-1980s, and it is showing its age – specialist coverage describes it as looking a bit run-down while remaining a landmark. That is a common state for a forty-year-old painted outdoor object with a complex surface: a globe is essentially all detail, and detail is the first thing weather takes.

It stands in Shropshire Park by the banks of the River Leven, which runs through Ulverstone to the Bass Strait coast, and Burnie City Council promotes it as part of its regional Big Things route.

It is one of the few oversized objects in this catalogue that is simultaneously a war memorial and a piece of civic decoration.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Burnie City Council currently promotes the Big Globe in Shropshire Park as part of its regional Big Things route. Contemporary specialist reporting also confirms it remains in place and identifies its naval-history context.

ACCESS

The Big Globe stands in Shropshire Park on Dial Street, Ulverstone, beside the HMAS Shropshire memorial. Central Coast Council treats the park as directly vehicle-accessible from Dial Street (it is even used as informal event overflow parking), and confirms no connection between this park and the council's Wharf Car Park on Crescent Street, which serves a different part of the CBD. Visitors should park kerbside on Dial Street beside the park; no marked car park bays exist on site.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

A three-metre cement penguin on the foreshore in Penguin, built for the town centenary and unveiled in 1975.

Roadside giants

9.3 km away

✓ Recommended arrival recorded

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Central Coast Council – Ulverstone parking

Central Coast Council · recorded 2026-09-11

Lists Ulverstone's free council car parks, including the Wharf Car Park on Crescent Street with daytime campervan/caravan parking; no coordinates and no specific link to Shropshire Park.

Government

Discover Burnie – Big Things

Burnie City Council · recorded 2026-08-22

Current official regional Big Things guide places globe in Shropshire Park.

Government

Land of the Bigs – Big Globe

Land of the Bigs · recorded 2026-08-22

Contemporary specialist corroboration.

Community

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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