The Big Magpie

Muswellbrook, New South Wales, 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 large Australian magpie sculpture in Simpson Park, part of Muswellbrook Shire’s public-art and nature-trail landscape.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

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

The Big Magpie

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

Site-level location · 32.2664° S, 150.8891° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A large Australian magpie in Simpson Park, photographed in the shire's own 2023 recreation study.

That is an unusual form of confirmation and a useful one. A council recreation study is an internal planning document that inventories what actually exists in public open space, which makes it considerably more reliable than a tourism listing for establishing that an object is physically present.

Muswellbrook already has a significant oversized object – the two-metre, half-tonne bronze Blue Heeler by Brett Garling, unveiled in 2016 as a tribute to the Australian Cattle Dog and the pastoral history of the Upper Hunter. A magpie in a park is a quieter proposition, aimed at residents rather than at travellers on the New England Highway.

The bird is a good subject for a park specifically. Magpies are the most territorial and most present birds in any Australian public open space – they hold ground, they sing at dawn, they recognise the people who walk through regularly, and in spring they swoop the ones they do not trust. A magpie sculpture in a park is depicting the park's actual established resident.

Australia now has several: Big Swoop in Canberra's Petrie Plaza, Swoop the Big Barrwarrang at Euroa, Owe'e in his nest at Miriam Vale, and this.

Simpson Park is public ground with facilities documented in the same study, so the sculpture is free and open.

No source located gives its size and the decade it belongs to.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Muswellbrook Shire’s 2023 recreation study photographs the Australian Magpie sculpture in Simpson Park and documents the park’s public facilities.

ACCESS

Navigate to Simpson Park on Market Street. Use normal public park/station-area parking and approach the sculpture on foot.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

The Big Blue Heeler

Muswellbrook, New South Wales

A two-metre, half-tonne bronze Australian Cattle Dog sculpture in Muswellbrook, created by Brett Garling and unveiled in its current form in 2016.

Roadside giants

0.6 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Muswellbrook Council agenda - bird sculptures

Muswellbrook Shire Council · recorded 2026-08-22

Government

Muswellbrook Recreation Needs and Management Study 2023

Muswellbrook Shire Council · recorded 2026-08-22

Government

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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