Big Goanna – Girrawah Park

Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Public art

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Current

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A giant climbable goanna sculpture welcomes visitors to culturally significant Girrawah Park in Ngunnawal.

Before you stop

Park at the other rather than at the landmark itself.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Other

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. Do not stop at the landmark; use the recommended arrival if stopping.

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Big Goanna – Girrawah Park

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

Site-level location · 35.1814° S, 149.1110° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A giant goanna welcomes visitors to Girrawah Park, and both the animal and the park name belong to the same place.

The park is in Ngunnawal, a Gungahlin suburb named for the Ngunnawal people, and its streets carry names drawn from Aboriginal culture and from named individuals – Wanganeen Avenue for the Aboriginal affairs activist Ken Wanganeen among them. Girrawah Park is described in current ACT Government Canberra Tracks material as a place a giant goanna welcomes visitors to, with access from Gamburra Street, and local coverage independently notes it as a site of cultural significance for local Indigenous people.

The sculpture is climbable, which is unusual for a work in a culturally significant park and suggests a deliberate decision that children should be able to use it rather than only look at it.

Goannas are the right animal for this country. Lace monitors and other varanids are found through the tablelands around Canberra, they are large, conspicuous and unafraid, and they are among the few reptiles most people here have actually seen in the open.

This entry deliberately does not attempt to explain the park's cultural significance or what the goanna may mean. That is recorded by the ACT Government as fact and belongs to the Ngunnawal people to describe.

Canberra Tracks, the ACT's heritage trail programme, is the reason this record has official confirmation at all – a rare case of a suburban park sculpture appearing in government heritage material.

Any figures for its size, the year and the maker's identity are missing from the documentation.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Current ACT Government Canberra Tracks material explicitly says a giant goanna welcomes visitors to Girrawah Park and gives access from Gamburra Street. Current local coverage independently describes the giant goanna sculpture as a distinctive feature of the park.

ACCESS

Public park attraction accessed from Gamburra Street. Use lawful neighbourhood parking and pedestrian access; do not drive onto parkland.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

The Big Bunyip

Gungahlin, Australian Capital Territory

Anne Ross’s oversized Alexander Bunyip public artwork in Gungahlin, based on Michael Salmon’s The Monster That Ate Canberra.

Public art

2.0 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Canberra Tracks – Girrawah Park

ACT Government · recorded 2026-08-23

Current ACT Government page states a giant goanna welcomes visitors to Girrawah Park and provides Gamburra Street access.

Government

Region Canberra – See Ngunnawal Differently

Region Canberra · recorded 2026-08-23

Current local coverage describes Girrawah Park as having a giant goanna sculpture to climb.

News

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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