This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
36.82373° S, 139.86313° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Larry the Lobster is seventeen metres high and fifteen and a bit long, and he is one of the genuine landmarks of the Australian roadside.
He stands on the Princes Highway at Kingston SE, on the Limestone Coast between Adelaide and the Victorian border, and Kingston District Council gives his height as seventeen metres and his length as 15.2 metres. That makes him among the largest oversized objects anywhere in this collection.
The subject is the local catch. Southern rock lobster – the spiny lobster of these waters, sold live into Asian markets and long the backbone of the town's economy – is what the boats out of Kingston and along the Limestone Coast go for, and the fishery is one of the most valuable in South Australia.
Seventeen metres is also where a Big Thing stops being a sign and becomes topography. Larry is visible across flat coastal country from a considerable distance, and he functions as a navigational marker on the drive south as much as an advertisement for anything.
A spiny lobster is a good subject at that scale for a reason that is easy to miss: it is all detail. Antennae, legs, segmented tail, spines – an animal that is mostly appendage, which means an enlarged one has an enormous amount going on and rewards being walked around rather than photographed once from the road.
He has been repainted and maintained over the decades, and the council continues to promote him as a major town attraction.
The record does not carry the year it went up or the maker's name.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Kingston District Council continues to promote Larry as a major town attraction and identifies the complex on Princes Highway. Council material gives its height as 17 metres and length as 15.2 metres.
ACCESS
Navigate to the Big Lobster visitor site on Princes Highway. Use the established visitor-site parking rather than stopping on the highway shoulder.
