The Big Scout Hat

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Buildings and structures

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Current

Recently confirmed · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A giant Scout campaign hat mounted atop the historic Cairns Control Room near Munro Martin Park.

Before you stop

Park at the other rather than at the landmark itself.

Use marked white parking bays and obey current signs, fees and time limits. Do not treat the Big Scout Hat sculpture coordinate as a vehicle destination.

356 m walk

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Other · 356 m walk

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. Do not stop at the landmark; use the recommended arrival if stopping.

A free Explorer account reveals the exact recommended arrival point.

The Big Scout Hat

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

16.91941° S, 145.77148° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A fibreglass Scout campaign hat, sitting on top of a wartime control room.

The building is the interesting half. The Cairns Control Room dates from the Second World War, when Cairns was a major staging base for operations in New Guinea and the Coral Sea and the far north was under genuine threat of attack. Control rooms of this kind coordinated air raid precautions and civil defence. Very few survive, and fewer still are in active use.

Putting a giant Scout hat on it converts a piece of defence infrastructure into a Big Thing without altering the structure – the same method as the Rutherglen water tower turned wine bottle and the Myrtleford chimney painted as a cigarette. Adaptive reuse with a sense of humour.

The hat itself is the old Scouting campaign hat: broad-brimmed, four-dented crown, derived from military and bush headwear and worn by Scouts for most of the twentieth century before being largely retired from uniform. As a shape it is instantly recognisable and completely obsolete, which gives the object a nostalgia the builders may not have intended.

Cairns tourism material records it as a landmark since 1982, made entirely of fibreglass, on Grafton Street near Munro Martin Park.

Cairns therefore holds two catalogue entries – this and the eight-metre marlin at Earlville – and they represent opposite ends of the tradition: one advertising the region's famous industry, the other a community organisation quietly claiming a heritage building.

Who made the hat, and what prompted the Scouts to commission it, are not recorded.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

The fibreglass hat turns a World War II-era control-room building into a distinctive Big Thing.

ACCESS

The Big Scout Hat is within Munro Martin Parklands and is not itself a driving destination. Use Cairns Regional Council’s public Grafton Street Car Park at 120–122 Grafton Street, approximately -16.92145, 145.77406, then walk about 350 m to the parklands. Use marked white bays and obey current signs, fees and time limits; do not drive to the sculpture point.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

The Big Marlin

Earlville, Queensland

An approximately eight-metre marlin landmark outside the Earlville/Stockland shopping precinct in Cairns.

Roadside giants

4.4 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Australian Big Things index – Queensland entry

Wikipedia contributors · recorded 2026-08-23

Secondary public index used to normalise provenance for an already-researched attraction; retain editorial evidence for authoritative/current claims.

Community

Cairns Regional Council – CPAC visual story (parking)

Cairns Regional Council · recorded 2026-09-11

States there is free and paid street parking and a car park accessed via Grafton, Sheridan or Florence Streets serving the Cairns Performing Arts Centre / Munro Martin Parklands precinct.

Government

Cairns Regional Council – Munro Martin Parklands access and parking

Cairns Regional Council · recorded 2026-08-23

Council page confirms the Florence Street main entrance, surrounding street parking and additional CPAC parking.

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.

Munro Martin Parklands access and nearby parking are confirmed, but a specific lawful vehicle arrival coordinate for the Big Scout Hat visit has not yet been map-checked.

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