Giant yabby unveiled in Windorah as latest 'big thing'

A giant yabby statue has been unveiled in Windorah, a small Queensland town 1,200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, as part of its annual social calendar.

The big yabby, which stands 4.6 metres tall and was constructed from bird wire and sheet metal, was unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Albert Street. It joins a collection of Australia's big crustaceans and other town representations, including Ballina's big prawn and Cardwell's big crab.

Barcoo Shire Mayor Sally O'Neil said the statue is a fitting addition to the town with a population of 100, best known for hosting "international yabby races".

"[At] Cooper Creek … you will pull up, go fishing, and you're bound to get a yabby or two, or five or more," she said.

Cr O'Neil said she hoped the $13,000 state-funded project would catch the eye of the town's next tourist.

"Hopefully it'll pull the tourists up and they may hang around an extra day … it's good for economic development of the communities out west," she said.

Toowoomba artist Jobella Bennett created the yabby, which took three months to build. She said she was approached by the council to create the sculpture.

"I got rung up and they [the council] were like, 'Could you make a yabby?'" she said.

"And I was like, 'Yeah, how big?'"

"And they were like, 'As big as you can make it.'"

Ms Bennett said she hoped to work on more "big things", adding that it was important communities supported artistic creations.

"There's so many amazing artists out there and it's really nice that councils or the communities or whoever's organised it is actually backing artists," she said.

University of the Sunshine Coast history lecturer Amy Clarke said Australia was continuing to build more "big things", bucking the trend of other countries.

"Australia is still pedal to the floor, kind of, 'Let's build as many of them as we can,'" Dr Clarke said.

She said support for new statues across the country reflected their community involvement.

"And it is often the case that it is really a kind of group project," Dr Clarke said.

"It's often a chamber of commerce or the local council or a local charity group that's come together and said, 'How can we really celebrate and champion our town, and get people to come out here and visit us?'"

Dr Clarke said since the trend first began in the 1960s, it had become more official over time.

"We've now seen over time a professionalisation of big things," she said.

"We now have a number of companies and professional fibreglass artists that specialise in making these sorts of giant objects."