Big Golf Ball – Huonville

Golf balls now appear in this collection at Palmerston North, Rotorua, Te Poi, Clayton South, Hervey Bay, Darwin and here. That makes the golf ball the most duplicated single subject in the entire tradition, ahead of bananas, prawns and even cows.

The reason is straightforward and slightly deflating. A sphere is the cheapest large object to fabricate, dimples are the only detail required, white needs no colour matching, and every golf club and driving range in both countries faces the identical problem of being invisible from the road. The form is not chosen so much as arrived at.

The Huon Valley setting is at least distinctive. This is apple and cherry country south of Hobart along the Huon River, and a golf course here plays through orchard and forest country rather than links land.

Huonville is also a short drive from the Big Bee at The Honey Pot and the Big Axe at Longley, so the valley carries three quite different oversized objects within a few kilometres.

The installation date, any attribution and any figures for its size were left unrecorded.