This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
21.93448° S, 114.12918° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Exmouth's prawn spent a decade in private hands before the town got it.
The seven-metre Western King Prawn was built in 2004, later donated to the Shire of Exmouth, and installed on Murat Road in 2014 – so there is a ten-year gap between the sculpture existing and the sculpture becoming a landmark. What it was doing in the meantime is not recorded.
The species is precise, and that precision matters here. Western King Prawns are the mainstay of the Exmouth Gulf prawn fishery, one of the more valuable and carefully managed trawl fisheries in Western Australia, working the shallow gulf waters behind the Ningaloo coast. This is not a generic crustacean standing for seafood in general; it is the animal the town's boats actually catch.
Built in fibreglass and steel, it sits in Exmouth's visitor precinct with an accompanying information kiosk, which puts it in the small category of Big Things that come with an explanation attached rather than leaving visitors to guess.
It was refurbished in 2020. A fibreglass sculpture on the North West Cape faces about the harshest conditions in the country – extreme UV, salt, heat and the occasional cyclone – and a repaint every few years is the difference between a landmark and a wreck.
Exmouth is better known for whale sharks and Ningaloo Reef, and the prawn is a useful corrective. Before the tourism, this was a fishing town, and it still is.
The ten-year gap remains the most interesting thing about it. Somebody paid to build a seven-metre prawn in 2004 with no public site to put it on, and then gave it away. Whatever that story is, it has not been written down.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
The Big Prawn is a fibreglass-and-steel sculpture of a Western King Prawn on Murat Road in Exmouth's visitor precinct, marking the town's commercial prawning industry. The site includes a Big Prawn information kiosk.
ACCESS
The Big Prawn is a current public attraction on Murat Road. Shire of Exmouth records describe the sculpture reserve as including significant sealed parking areas, so lawful visitor parking at the site is established. PBT still withholds direct navigation because the specific parking polygon/vehicle entrance has not yet been independently map-checked; do not treat the sculpture coordinate itself as the vehicle destination.
The Big Prawn location is verified, but a current lawful vehicle parking/arrival coordinate for the Murat Road visit has not yet been independently map-checked.
Something not right?
If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.
