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