This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
34.89366° S, 138.60365° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Scotty came first. Before the Big Banana, before the Big Merino, before any of it – the five-metre Scotsman was erected in 1963 at the corner of Nottage Terrace and Main North Road, and the History Trust of South Australia records him as the first of Australia's still-standing Big Things, a year ahead of the Big Banana's completion in 1964.
The construction method is worth recording because it is the prototype for everything that followed. A solid steel frame, covered in wire netting, clad in hessian, sprayed with polyurethane foam, coated in fibreglass mesh to stop it disintegrating, and finally painted. He was built in three main pieces – legs, torso and head.
That is a genuinely inventive piece of improvisation, and it is not how anyone would do it now. Later Big Things were moulded in fibreglass over purpose-made formers. Scotty was effectively upholstered.
He has been under threat. In 2021 the sculpture's owner discussed options for relocating the Scotsman or gifting him to the state should the motel site be redeveloped under changed zoning laws, and the Adelaide press reported that he could be demolished under a rezoning bid. Scotty's Motel currently confirms he remains at the corner and describes him as still strong.
That is the position of a great many of these objects: sixty years old, structurally sound, commercially inconvenient, and dependent entirely on whether the land under them stays as it is.
He is the origin point of the entire tradition this catalogue documents.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Scotty's Motel currently confirms the 1963 sculpture remains at the corner of Nottage Terrace and Main North Road and describes it as still strong. The History Trust of South Australia documents its significance and earlier redevelopment discussions.
ACCESS
The Big Scotsman remains beside a busy arterial-road intersection and motel property. No dedicated public sightseeing arrival has been verified.
