Why Australia's 'Big Trout' is swimming in controversy

Australian Community Media

It’s got to be one of the NSW region’s best-known and much-loved landmarks, but the latest paint job on Adaminaby’s Big Trout has prompted an outcry from locals.

Transcript

00:00 Since it was first erected in 1973, Annaminibi's Big Trout has had many different colour schemes.

00:11 However this latest paint job has left quite a few locals scratching their heads, including

00:19 fishing guide Michael Shanahan.

00:21 Look, I can't complain that much.

00:23 I didn't put my hand up to paint it.

00:25 You know, if I had, I probably wouldn't have given it this sort of job, because it's been

00:30 through a few iterations and this is, I'd say, one of the most basic of all of them.

00:37 So it doesn't look like a rainbow trout?

00:39 Is that what you're trying to say?

00:40 Oh look, to an unpracticed eye, you'd be like, yes, that is a trout.

00:44 Because the original sculpture is a fantastic representation of a trout.

00:48 It's a cool thing about the trout, is it's not like a lot of your other big things.

00:52 There's even another big, there's a few other big trout, and even the original sculptures

00:56 look a bit dodgy.

00:57 They're kind of more stylised, you know, the head's too big, everything's a bit off.

01:00 This one looks like a fantastic, you know, perfect 12 inch rainbow, you know, your summertime

01:06 special up here on the Yukon Bean.

01:09 And it used to have some fantastic paint jobs through the years.

01:12 I grew up, you know, under one of the original old paint jobs, which then got redone.

01:17 And then, I mean, the last paint job before this was pretty bad, it didn't last too long.

01:23 But now it's, yeah, this one's, again, they've kind of gone a bit more simplistic again.

01:26 If I, I almost feel remorse.

01:29 I should have put my hand up more and, you know, I should have done something else about

01:34 it myself, because you can't complain unless you saw things out yourself, basically.

01:38 But it's, look, it's still going to work for tourists, they're still going to like it.

01:42 But if you go through and find some of the older photos, some of the photos from when

01:47 I was growing up, and the original paint job, not even the original paint job, it would

01:51 have been the second or third paint job, which lasted for years, had this beautiful, you

01:54 know, it was airbrushed, it was all perfect.

01:57 It wasn't kind of slapped on in direct lines and everything else.

02:00 And when you've got something as realistic as this statue, you really want to see something

02:03 as beautiful as it.

02:04 So next time, I'll wait.

02:06 I'll wait till, you know, snowy mountains weather as a way of chipping away at these

02:10 things pretty quick.

02:11 And I'll put my money where my mouth is next time and put up some guided days for it and

02:15 we'll get it repainted again.

02:17 [Music]

02:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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