Blinky Bill – Giant Koala

Currumbin, Queensland, Australia

Public art

Current – limited access

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is still here, but public access is limited. Check the access notes for details before visiting.

A larger-than-life painted koala sculpture called Blinky Bill on the official Art Trail inside Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Limited access
Check the access notes for details before visiting

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Blinky Bill – Giant Koala

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

Site-level location · 28.1377° S, 153.4842° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Fifty giant koalas took up residence across the Gold Coast in 2013 and again in 2015, and Blinky Bill is one of the survivors.

Animals with Attitude was a public art trail and a fundraiser for the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, using larger-than-life painted koalas to raise money and draw attention to koala conservation and to the hospital's work. Painted-animal trails of this kind have run in cities worldwide, and the format works because each sculpture is the same blank form interpreted by a different artist, so the trail rewards seeing many rather than one.

This one was painted by Scott Maxwell and now stands on the official Art Trail inside Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, at map location F18, alongside works from the SWELL Sculpture Festival and other donated pieces.

The cause has only become more urgent. The hospital at Currumbin treats very large numbers of animals injured by cars, dogs, disease and habitat loss, and koala numbers in south-east Queensland have fallen sharply enough that the species is now listed as endangered through much of eastern Australia. A former state MP donated another koala to the same trail explicitly as a reminder of the obligation to protect them and their habitat.

Because the sculpture sits inside an operating wildlife sanctuary rather than on a public street, access follows the sanctuary: seeing it means going in.

Most of the fifty have dispersed or gone. A trail assembled for a fundraiser rarely stays intact, and the ones that survive do so because an institution adopted them.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Blinky Bill is a larger-than-life painted koala sculpture on the official Art Trail inside Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, created by artist Scott Maxwell and displayed at map location F18.

ACCESS

This sculpture is inside Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary at 28 Tomewin Street and requires normal paid sanctuary admission. Navigate to the sanctuary entrance and use the dedicated paid car park or public transport; do not treat the map pin as a free roadside stop.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

✓

Current

The Big Beehive

Currumbin, Queensland

A giant beehive-style entrance at Honeyworld in Currumbin, part of the long-running bee and honey attraction beside Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Buildings and structures

0.4 km away

✓ Recommended arrival recorded

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary – current Art Trail: Blinky Bill

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary – location and parking

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap – Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary site

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap · recorded 2026-08-22

Other

National Trust Queensland – Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary entry information

National Trust of Australia (Queensland) · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

What we're still checking

Blinky Bill is identified by the sanctuary at internal map location F18; the public database pin currently identifies the sanctuary site rather than a surveyed sculpture coordinate.

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.

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