Big Thumbs Up – Scottsdale

It works better than it sounds, because the gesture is universal in a way a local emblem is not. A giant potato tells you about the district; a giant thumb tells you how the district feels about your being there. For a town in Tasmania's north-east – reached over the Sideling, a winding climb that is a genuine drive rather than a straight run – arriving to visible encouragement has a certain wit to it.

It is a public landmark rather than a business sign. TLCMap provides a mapped point at -41.1658, 147.5096, and Dorset Council was still discussing visitor signage for the Big Thumb rest stop in 2025, which places it firmly in the category of council-managed roadside infrastructure – a rest area with a landmark attached, rather than the other way around.

That also means it has the practical advantages of a rest stop: somewhere to pull off, at the end of a road that has earned you a break.

The maker, installation date and dimensions are not established in the record, and neither is whose idea it was.

Scottsdale's own economy gives the gesture a little more edge than it first appears. The town has been through significant industrial change, with the closure of major processing operations reshaping local employment over the past two decades, and north-east Tasmania has had to work at attracting visitors rather than assuming them.

The Blue Derby mountain bike trails nearby have been the most successful part of that effort, drawing riders from interstate and overseas into a district that previously had little visitor traffic. A cheerful landmark at the entrance to town, maintained as a rest stop, is a small piece of the same strategy.