This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
34.44811° S, 140.54988° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Loxton's pelican began as a Mardi Gras parade float and never went back in the shed.
That origin is worth savouring. A float is built for one afternoon, out of whatever will survive a slow drive down a main street, and its normal fate is dismantling. This one instead became the town's oversized landmark beside the Murray, which puts it in the same small category as the Big Chook at Moonbi – another parade float that outlived its parade.
The subject is right for the river. Australian pelicans are among the most conspicuous birds on the Murray, gathering in numbers on the broad reaches and lagoons, and their improbable proportions make them one of the few Australian birds that look like a caricature before anyone has enlarged them.
Loxton sits in the South Australian Riverland, in irrigated fruit and wine country established on the river flats, and the pelican stands near the Loxton Riverfront Holiday Park – which is exactly where the birds themselves congregate.
The 2025 Loxton township guide lists it as a current attraction, and a geotagged licensed photograph from 2013 independently fixes the location, so the object has been documented in place over more than a decade.
That combination of a float-built origin and a photographic record spanning years is more than most objects of this kind manage. Parade sculpture is almost never documented, because nobody expects it to last.
Nothing located supplies a named maker.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
The 2025 Loxton township guide explicitly lists the Big Pelican as a current attraction near Loxton Riverfront Holiday Park. A geotagged licensed photograph independently fixes the sculpture location.
ACCESS
Use the established Loxton riverfront visitor area and lawful parking near the holiday park; the sculpture sits beside the riverfront rather than on a traffic lane.
