Giant Planisphere – Northam

Northam, Western Australia, Australia

Public art

✓

Current

Checked by Project Big Things · Aug 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A giant interactive star wheel at Bernard Park used to identify stars and constellations by date and time.

P
Parking
onsite

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Other

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Giant Planisphere – Northam

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

Site-level location · 31.6505° S, 116.6722° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Installed in August 2025, and in use by Australia Day the following January.

The Shire of Northam confirms the Giant Planisphere went into Bernard Park in August 2025, and Astrotourism WA featured it working at a public stargazing event on 26 January 2026 – a day that began with free entry to the aquatic facility and the Wundowie pool, sausage sizzles, slides, inflatables and games, and ended with people using a giant star wheel to find constellations.

That pairing is the point of the whole programme. Rural towns can already do the daytime part; what they have historically lacked is any reason for a visitor to still be there after dark. A permanent, free, no-equipment-required instrument in the town park is a very cheap answer.

Northam is the largest town in the Avon Valley, about ninety minutes east of Perth, and it is one of the closest genuinely dark-sky locations to the city. That proximity makes it the most accessible of Western Australia's astrotourism towns and the obvious place to put infrastructure.

A planisphere works by rotating a star chart against a date-and-time scale to show the sky above you at that moment. At giant scale, mounted permanently and set for the local latitude, it becomes a public instrument rather than a personal one – several people can read it together, which is exactly what you need at a community stargazing night.

Not documented anywhere: the material used and any figures for its size.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

The Shire of Northam confirms the Giant Planisphere was installed at Bernard Park in August 2025. Astrotourism WA featured it in operation at a January 2026 public stargazing event.

ACCESS

Use normal Bernard Park public access and parking; approach the planisphere on foot.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

Current – limited access

The Big Camera

Meckering, Western Australia

A photography museum housed in a building shaped like a giant 35mm camera.

Buildings and structures

32 km away

✓ Recommended arrival recorded

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Astrotourism WA – Northam Australia Day Stargazing 2026

Astrotourism WA · recorded 2026-08-23

Tourism

Shire of Northam – Public Art

Shire of Northam · recorded 2026-08-23

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.

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