Description
Although Western Australia doesn't have a great number of Big Things, they seem to make up for it with the size of the Big Things they do have. The Big Crocodile at Wyndham is a huge 20-metre long, 3-metre high replica of the saltwater crocodiles which live in the nearby Cambridge Gulf. The real ones might be a little smaller, but they're definitely more dangerous!
Designed and built by sculptor Andrew Hickson in 1988, with the help of aboriginal students from the Halls Creek TAFE, it consists of 5.5 km of steel rod, 10 rolls of bird mesh and 6 cubic metres of concrete. It was created by photographing a crocodile and having a computer at Curtin University plot 2 400 mathematical coordinates of the crocodile's shape. Sitting in the middle of the main street, it's hard to miss.
Wyndham is the oldest and northernmost town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, located on the Great Northern Highway, 3 440 kilometres northeast of Perth. The climate of Wyndham is tropical, with the wet season from late November to March and the dry season from April to early November. The annual average maximum temperature is 35.6°C, one of the highest in Australia. The town's export crocodile farm hope to eventually increase their productivity to around 3000 crocodiles per year.
The Big Crocodile is located on the Great Northern Highway, at the entrance to Wyndham Three Mile.
