Erik the Eagle

Burnie, Tasmania, Australia

Public art

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Current

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A large eagle sculpture in Shorewell Park, locally known as Erik.

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.

Erik the Eagle

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

Site-level location · 41.0727° S, 145.8833° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Erik is perched about ten feet in the air in Shorewell Park, and Burnie City Council calls him a community favourite.

That phrasing is doing something specific. Shorewell Park is a public housing estate on Burnie's western side – an area that has carried the usual burdens of disadvantage and the usual reputation that goes with it – and a council describing a sculpture there as a community favourite is making a point about the neighbourhood rather than about the object.

Naming him is part of the same instinct. This catalogue has repeatedly found that giving an object a personal name is the clearest marker of local affection: Ossie the Mozzie at Hexham, Clawdia at Moonie, Kenny at Eulo, Mr O'Doyle at St Lawrence. Erik belongs to that group.

Eagles are a well-judged subject for Tasmania. The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is an endemic subspecies, the largest raptor in the state, and it is endangered – reduced to a small breeding population by habitat loss, collisions with wind turbines and powerlines, and disturbance at nest sites. An eagle in a Burnie park is a bird most residents will have seen over the hills behind the city.

Height is the other good decision. Perching the sculpture rather than standing it on the ground is how the bird actually presents itself, and it makes the object visible across an open park.

Burnie City Council promotes him as one of the city's Big Things.

The unanswered questions are the name of whoever built it, any figures for its size and the year.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Burnie City Council currently promotes Erik the Eagle as one of Burnie’s Big Things, describing the sculpture as perched about 10 feet in the air and a community favourite.

ACCESS

Erik the Eagle is at Shorewell Park, but 2026 park/carpark redevelopment means the preferred visitor arrival is not yet stable because of the works.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

Burnie Gateway – Welcome Gesture

Burnie, Tasmania

A bold gateway artwork of tall yellow poles forming a sweeping welcoming gesture at Burnie’s eastern entrance.

Public art

2.7 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Discover Burnie – Big Things

Burnie City Council · recorded 2026-08-22

Current official council guide identifies Erik at Shorewell Park and describes scale.

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.

Preferred visitor parking/photo arrival has not yet been independently verified.

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