This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 28.7495° S, 153.5347° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The knight was built by a surfboard shaper. Bob McTavish – a name that means a great deal in Australian surfing, where he is credited with much of the shortboard revolution of the late 1960s – made the six-and-a-half-metre figure out of fibreglass sheets, and it was installed in 1985.
He had the right skills for it. Fibreglass over a shaped form is exactly what a surfboard is, and there were very few people on the north coast in 1985 who could work the material at that scale.
The knight was always part of the plan. Allan and Joyce Howard opened the attraction in January 1974 as Knockrow Castle; they had been running a motel in Ballina and believed the region needed something for visitors to do when it was too cold or wet for the beach. A castle needs a guard, and Allan Howard wanted one from the beginning – it simply took eleven years to get him.
He stood there for thirty-eight years, through several changes of owner and name, most of them under the banner of the Macadamia Castle. He was removed in early 2023 on safety grounds as the site was converted into the Byron Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
Where he is now is genuinely unresolved. He was reported as purchased by the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House, and the specialist source that reported it promised to say when he had been installed. No reliable current source confirms that he has been restored or put back on display anywhere, and the catalogue accordingly records him as stored rather than standing. A six-and-a-half-metre knight is a hard thing to lose track of, and yet.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
The Big Knight was a 6.5-metre fibreglass knight that stood guard at the former Macadamia Castle at Knockrow from 1985 until 2023. It is no longer on display at Knockrow; the site has since transitioned to Byron Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
ACCESS
Historical former-site listing only. Do not travel to 419 Hinterland Way expecting to see the Big Knight. Its current display/storage location remains unverified.
The Big Knight was removed from Knockrow in 2023 and reportedly purchased by Coffs Harbour Butterfly House, but its current display or storage location has not yet been verified.
Something not right?
If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.
