This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 12.3596° S, 130.8882° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Colin the turtle was built in 2004 to celebrate a brand-new Darwin suburb, and he is four metres of mosaic.
Techy Masero made him with the help of local Indigenous artists. Masero was born in Chile in 1954 and has lived in Darwin since 1985; he is also responsible for the Big Barramundi and George the Croc, which makes him one of the more prolific makers of oversized objects in the Top End. The mosaic surface is what rewards a close look – from across the park it reads as one animal, and up close it resolves into thousands of individual tiled decisions.
The subject is not decorative. The City of Darwin records that turtles are a significant creature in Larrakia culture, and that Larrakia people hold it is up to them to look after this creature. That is the council's own description, and this entry does not extend it. Larrakia artists' work runs right through the surrounding playground – paintings on the play equipment, etchings on the benches and sculptures that tell stories about Larrakia culture – so the turtle sits inside a much larger body of work rather than standing alone.
Lyons is in Darwin's northern suburbs, developed comparatively recently, and Garamanak Park is a neighbourhood reserve rather than a destination. There is no business behind the turtle, nothing being advertised and no highway to catch.
He is met almost entirely by people walking dogs and taking children to the playground, which is exactly what a suburb builds a turtle for.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Contemporary national travel coverage identifies Techy Masero’s four-metre turtle in Garamanak Park and records its creation with local Indigenous artists to mark the establishment of Lyons.
ACCESS
Navigate to Garamanak Park on Damabila Drive. City of Darwin confirms the public park and adjacent Lyons Community Centre, which has off-street parking. Use public paths to view the Big Turtle.
