It was this big!

This public sculpture installation comprising of multiple pieces was commissioned by Martin Spinks as a philanthropic gesture to celebrate the fishing culture of the hard-working people of Benaraby, a small town in the Gladstone Region of Queensland. Martin engaged Lump to fabricate this sculpture and install it for permanent display on the side of the Bruce HWY.

Martin’s concept was, “It was this big”’, a sculpture of two large hands measuring a barramundi fish between them. Lump Sculpture Studio’s designers and engineers worked closely in consultation with Martin to successfully fabricate and realise his vision.

Over 226 individual pieces of steel were welded together to form each of the faceted hands and another 11 separate aluminium segments form the silvery barramundi. The public art installation is a dynamic sculpture that constantly changes depending on your viewpoint.

The 4.5m tall corten steel hands are spaced wide apart, as if to demonstrate the size of a big barramundi caught in the nearby Boyne River. The big barra itself, is displayed in segments floating between the earthy, rusted hands, with “all of the good eating parts missing” as a passer-by noted during the installation.

The sculpture took six months to complete and three days to install with the help of Matheson Cranes, a local Gladstone crane company, and professional photographer Paul Williams from Queensland.

Like many of the ‘Big Things’ located along Australia’s tourist trail, “It was this big!” pays tribute to natural heritage and local culture and proudly joins this list as a must-see on the Bruce Highway in Benaraby.