This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Approximate location · 35.240° S, 149.070° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Giant Mushroom was a roof. That is the detail that separates it from most oversized objects: it was not there to be looked at but to be stood under, sheltering a children's playground at the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets.
It stood about eight metres and was officially launched in 1998 by the ACT Chief Minister, which is a level of ceremony most fungi do not receive.
A mushroom is an unusually sensible thing to build at that scale, because the form already solves the problem. A cap on a stem is a cantilevered canopy – the shape is structurally a shelter before anyone decides to make it one – so an oversized mushroom can be both a recognisable object and a functioning piece of architecture without compromise. Playground designers have known this for decades, and this was the idea taken to its full size.
Established Big Things references record that it no longer existed by 2022. The markets themselves have been through substantial change, and the mushroom did not survive it.
No removal date, reason or destination appears in the available record, which is unfortunate for an object that was launched by a head of government. A civic occasion at the beginning and silence at the end is a common enough shape for these things, but it is more conspicuous when the beginning was that formal.
Canberra has since acquired a much better-publicised Big Thing in the Big Swoop, and the mushroom that sheltered Belconnen's children for at least two decades has left almost no trace.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Established Big Things references record the approximately eight-metre Giant Mushroom at the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets and record that it no longer existed by 2022.
ACCESS
Historical record only. Do not route visitors to Belconnen expecting the former mushroom playground shelter to remain.
