$13,000 Giant Yabby Aims to Boost Windorah Tourism

A 4.6-metre yabby now stands on Albert Street in Windorah, western Queensland. The town is betting that a steel crustacean can do what a population of 100 can't: put outback commerce on the map. The state funded the $13,000 statue, unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week.

It’s a small bet by government standards. Whether it pays off depends on something no ribbon-cutting can guarantee: whether travellers actually stop.

The Project

Windorah sits 1,200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane. That’s a long way from anywhere, and the town knows it. Barcoo Shire Mayor Sally O'Neil said the yabby represents the community, best known for its "international yabby races," a fixture on the annual social calendar.

O'Neil was plain about the economic goal. "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.

The pitch is modest. She isn't promising a boom, just another night of spending at local businesses. For a town this size, that’s not nothing. Each extra overnight stay means visitors buy fuel, meals, and accommodation from people who actually live there.

O'Neil also pointed to the natural draw. "[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.

The Artist and the Cost

Toowoomba artist Jobella Bennett spent three months building the sculpture from bird wire and sheet metal. It’s the largest piece she has made. She took the job after she began hosting classes in the central west and the council came calling.

"I got rung up and they [the council] were like, 'Could you make a yabby?'" Bennett said. "And I was like, 'Yeah, how big?'" The answer: "As big as you can make it."

Bennett researched yabbies before she started and called the job her first big project. "I learned a lot," she said. She hopes to make more "big things." She also argued that communities should back working artists. "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.

The arrangement is fairly straightforward: a local council identifies a need, commissions a private artist, and the artist delivers a finished product. The state’s $13,000 outlay is small enough that taxpayers can reasonably expect it to be measured against results.

A Uniquely Australian Habit

The yabby joins a familiar roster of roadside attractions: Ballina's big prawn, Cardwell's big crab, Bowen's big mango, Tully's big gumboot and Woombye's big pineapple.

University of the Sunshine Coast history lecturer Amy Clarke said "big things" also exist in Canada and the United States, but Australia hasn't slowed down. "Australia is still pedal to the floor, kind of, 'Let's build as many of them as we can,'" she said.

Clarke drew a distinction in motive. American statues, she said, often carry a commercial incentive, while Australian ones tend to reflect community involvement. "It is often the case that it is really a kind of group project," she said, describing chambers of commerce, local councils or charities joining forces to celebrate a town and draw visitors.

The trend began in the 1960s and has become more formal. "We've now seen over time a professionalisation of big things," Clarke said. Specialist companies and professional fibreglass artists now make these giant objects. "You can tell as well when you look at them that they're intended to be quite artistic," she added.

Why This Matters:

The Windorah yabby is a small story with a larger question: how should governments help remote towns compete for visitors and income? Here, the state put up $13,000, a local council set the goal, and a private artist did the work. Now the market will test the idea. If travellers stop, spend and stay the extra day O'Neil hopes for, the money looks well used. If they drive past, the project shows that public funding can't manufacture demand. For a town of 100, even modest visitor spending matters, and the results will show whether community-driven projects like this can deliver real economic return without leaning on repeated government support.