Ploddy the Dinosaur

Somersby, New South Wales, Australia

Animals and creatures

Current – limited access

Checked by Project Big Things · Sep 2026

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

A 26-metre concrete Diplodocus replica created in 1963 for the Australian Reptile Park and described by the Park as Australia's first Big Thing.

Limited access
Check the access notes for details before visiting

Private to your Passport.

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

Ploddy the Dinosaur

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

33.42527° S, 151.27710° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

In August 1996 more than ten thousand people lined the streets of Gosford to watch a hundred-tonne concrete dinosaur drive through town.

Ploddy had stood at Wyoming since 1963, when the Australian Reptile Park's founder Eric Worrell commissioned her – a 26-metre Diplodocus in concrete, and the Park's claim, which is a strong one, is that she was Australia's first Big Thing. She predates the Big Banana, the Big Merino and effectively the entire tradition.

When the Park moved to Somersby she went with it. She was cut free from her original base, and moving her took a team of specialists and about ten kilometres of road. The Park turned it into an event: a full street parade through Gosford, with local school children painting giant Ploddy footprints along the route.

She was not the only passenger. Around a thousand animals made the same move, including the Park's entire alligator population, Miss Piggy the pig-nosed turtle, the Galapagos tortoises Hugo and Dippy, Terminator the alligator snapping turtle, and – least visibly and most importantly – the lifesaving antivenom programme.

Ploddy now sits on a hill above the Sydney–Newcastle motorway, seen by more than forty million passing vehicles a year, which must make her among the most-viewed sculptures in the country. The ground around her has never been open to the public.

The Park put it well in marking her thirty years on the hill: for a great many people on the Central Coast, seeing Ploddy means they are nearly home.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

The Australian Reptile Park is celebrating Ploddy's 30 years at Somersby in August 2026. The 100-tonne dinosaur remains on the hill beside the Sydney–Newcastle motorway, after being moved from Wyoming with the Park in 1996.

ACCESS

Ploddy the Dinosaur stands on the hill south of the Australian Reptile Park visitor complex in Somersby. The former PBT object point duplicated the park visitor destination about 790 m north of the sculpture. OpenStreetMap independently maps Ploddy at approximately -33.42527, 151.27710, consistent with NSW heritage mapping for Ploddy at 945 Old Pacific Highway and the Australian Reptile Park’s current description of her hilltop position beside the Sydney–Newcastle freeway. Continue to use the separate Australian Reptile Park visitor destination and normal visitor parking; do not attempt to drive or walk directly onto the Ploddy hill unless the Park authorises access.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

Current – limited access

The Big Brown Snake

Somersby, New South Wales

A 30-metre-long, six-metre-high eastern brown snake statue installed atop the Australian Reptile Park's Weigel Venom Centre in 2025.

Animals and creatures

0.8 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Australian Reptile Park – Celebrating 30 Years On The Hill

Australian Reptile Park · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Australian Reptile Park – Ploddy celebrates 30 years at Somersby

Australian Reptile Park · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Australian Reptile Park – Ploddy the Dinosaur

Australian Reptile Park · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Central Coast Local Environmental Plan 2022 – Ploddy heritage item

NSW Government · recorded 2026-09-11

Schedule 5 lists Ploddy the Dinosaur at 945 Old Pacific Highway, Somersby, Lot 205 DP 747845 / road reserve.

Government

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap – Ploddy the Dinosaur

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap · recorded 2026-09-11

OpenStreetMap node 4740828055 maps Ploddy the Dinosaur at approximately -33.42527, 151.27710, about 790 m south of the Australian Reptile Park visitor complex.

Other

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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