This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 35.8117° S, 145.5640° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Locally it is just the Big Fish, and it has been in two places.
NSW Government records that the Aboriginal name for the Murray cod is Goodoo, that the Big Fish was originally erected at the old swimming pool in 1968, and that it was later moved to its present location on the foreshore.
Recording the Aboriginal name in the official listing is uncommon and worth noting. Goodoo is a Yorta Yorta and wider Murray-region name for the fish, and the cod is a significant animal in the cultures along the river, not merely a large one.
A 1968 date makes this one of the oldest Big Things in the country – earlier than most of the celebrated ones and only four years after the Big Banana. It has now been moved once and survived nearly sixty years, which is more than most fibreglass of that vintage manages.
Tocumwal sits on the Murray itself, and the foreshore park is the town's front garden, with free access and visitor facilities.
This is the second giant Murray cod in the catalogue, alongside Swan Hill's, which arrived by an entirely different route as a film prop. Two towns on the same river, each claiming the same fish, is a good illustration of how the tradition works – the subject is regional rather than exclusive, and nobody minds.
The cod itself is a threatened species now, having declined through river regulation, cold-water dam releases and the loss of the submerged timber it shelters under.
As for a materials note, the maker and a measured size – nothing.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
NSW Government material confirms the Big Murray Cod at Tocumwal Foreshore Park on Deniliquin Road, with free access and visitor facilities.
ACCESS
Navigate to Tocumwal Foreshore Park on Deniliquin Road and use the park car park. Coach parking, picnic facilities and toilets are also listed at the site.
