Big Potato

Big Potato, Robertson, New South Wales

Public Art: Big Potato

Nicknames : Big turd or the dud spud.

Sculptor : © Jim Mauger

Date : The Big Potato was built in 1977

Location : The Big Potato is located on the main street of Robertson, New South Wales. Trust me you can't miss it!

Description : The 10 m long, 4m wide enormous brown ferroconcrete structure was modelled on the North American sebago spud. The inside, which has long been bricked up, was sprayed to look like mashed potato.

History of the Big Potato : The town of Robertson lies in the "Green Heart of the Southern Highlands" and the centre for potato growing, so it wasn't a surprise that someone would eventually want to build a momument to honour the humble spud. That someone was local potato farmer Jim Mauger, who envisaged the giant spud as becoming a Potato Information Centre. Unfortunately his dream never eventuated. Instead the giant brown potato sits in disrepair despite it being a local icon.

Big Potato Controversy: One crazy night in March,2010, while the locals slept, a group of budding artists were busily putting their final touches on a paper mache face they had made for the Big Potato. By the time the sun rose, the towns most famous icon had a face (Mr Potato Head). One of the men responsible said it took them 2 weedends to make at a cost of $200. The annonymous group began the potato's extreme makeover at 3am one Saturday morning and it took them roughly 15 minutes. That day saw many tourists and visitors pulling over to take photos of the smiling face that now adorned the spud. Even the local chamber of commerce was delighted with the publicity the face was attracting. However, sadly and a tad ironically, that night the face was torn down by another group of vandals.