This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 34.6402° S, 148.0307° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Giant started as a supermarket mascot, spent time on a charity vehicle, and ended up outside a museum.
The fibreglass fairytale giant dates from about 1975 – head and torso only, which is the giveaway that it was built to loom over a shopfront rather than to stand in a park. After its retail life it was used on a charity support vehicle, then donated to the Cootamundra Heritage Centre in 2014 and restored in 2015.
That is one of the better outcomes available to a commercial mascot. Most are scrapped when the store rebrands. This one was passed along twice and then formally accessioned by a museum, which converts an advertising prop into a local history object.
The Heritage Centre occupies the beautifully restored 1901 railway barracks on Hovell Street, so the giant now stands outside a building that is itself a heritage item – advertising fibreglass and Federation brickwork sharing a lawn.
Cootamundra was gazetted as a township in 1861 and settled from 1862, drawing people first with the 1860s gold rush and then settling into agriculture. It has a considerable set of claims for a Riverina town: Donald Bradman was born here in 1908, the cycling club founded in 1896 is probably the oldest continuous club in New South Wales, and the Cootamundra Herald has published since 1877.
The town also carries a much harder history. The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls operated here from 1911 to 1968, in the former hospital – one of the institutions central to the Stolen Generations.
The Giant shares the town with the eight-metre Bradman bat and stumps of 1975.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Originally a supermarket mascot, The Giant was later used on a charity support vehicle, donated to the Heritage Centre in 2014 and restored in 2015. Current visitor material confirms the Heritage Centre remains open on Hovell Street.
ACCESS
The Giant is displayed beside Cootamundra Heritage Centre at 76 Hovell Street. The stored point is the independently mapped museum-site anchor rather than a claimed sculpture centroid. Navigate to the Heritage Centre and use normal museum/precinct access.
