Varanus (Gugaa)

Forbes, New South Wales, 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 monumental steel goanna at Gum Swamp Wildlife Refuge, part of Sculpture Down the Lachlan and significant to the Wiradjuri cultural story of Gugaa.

Before you stop

Use the signed Warrul Road / Greens Road access; do not stop on the Newell Highway.

Parking on site
110 m walk

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Onsite parking · 110 m walk

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

A free Explorer account reveals the exact recommended arrival point.

Varanus (Gugaa)

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

33.40472° S, 147.97050° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Twenty metres from tongue to tail, five and a half metres tall, three and a half tonnes of steel, and three thousand five hundred hours of one person's work.

Glen Star made Varanus, installed in 2020 at Gum Swamp Wildlife Refuge outside Forbes. It is built as a tracery of steel strips rather than a solid form, which is why the RACQ's account describes it as taking roadside big things to a whole new level – there is nothing brightly coloured or kitsch about it.

The subject is the sand goanna, Varanus gouldii, and it is a Wiradjuri totem animal. The sculpture tells of the significance of Gugaa to Wiradjuri people, which is the account the work's own material gives and the limit of what this entry says about it.

It belongs to Sculpture Down the Lachlan, a trail of thirteen works set in the landscape between Forbes and Condobolin following the Lachlan River, with a further twelve installations around Forbes itself – including a Gillie and Marc pyramid and a collection of sculptures and story poles depicting Wiradjuri culture beside Forbes Lake.

That is an unusually ambitious rural art programme, and Varanus is its largest single work.

The open steel construction is the right decision for a goanna among eucalypts. A solid animal would sit on the landscape; a lattice one has the trees visible through it, so it looks like it belongs there rather than having been delivered.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Installed in 2020, Varanus stands about 5.5 metres high and 20 metres long and was created by Glen Star from about 3.5 tonnes of steel.

ACCESS

Varanus (Gugaa) is within Gum Swamp Wildlife Refuge, about 4 km south-west of Forbes, and is part of Sculpture Down the Lachlan. From the Newell Highway turn onto Warrul Road, then left onto Greens Road, and park at Gum Swamp Reserve Parking. OpenStreetMap independently maps that reserve car park at -33.40376, 147.97017, about 110 m north of the sculpture, and NSW Government lists a car park and coach parking at the refuge. Walk from the car park to the sculpture; the navigation point is the mapped car-park feature, not a bay centroid.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

The Big Gold Pick and Pan

Grenfell, New South Wales

A giant gold pick and gold pan in Grenfell's historic railway-station precinct, built under the supervision of the Grenfell Men's Shed to celebrate the town's gold-rush history.

Roadside giants

57 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Art in the heart of NSW

RACQ · recorded 2026-08-22

News

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap – Gum Swamp Reserve Parking

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap · recorded 2026-09-11

OpenStreetMap node 10310009756 'Gum Swamp Reserve Parking' (amenity=parking) at -33.40376, 147.97017, about 110 m north of the Varanus artwork node; used as the map-checked arrival.

Other

NSW Government – Gum Swamp Wildlife Refuge

NSW Government · recorded 2026-09-11

Directions from the Newell Highway via Warrul Road then Greens Road; facilities include a car park and coach parking. Its map pin is a Forbes town address and was not used as geometry.

Government

Sculpture Down the Lachlan directory

Sculpture Down the Lachlan / Forbes Arts Society · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

Varanus

Sculpture Down the Lachlan / Forbes Arts Society · recorded 2026-08-22

Official

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.

Varanus (Gugaa) is exactly mapped and Gum Swamp Reserve has a named parking area nearby, but the parking coordinate has not yet been independently resolved for direct navigation.

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