Kookaburra

 

At Kurri Kurri,

A giant kookaburra stares at you,

Whispering

You are in sacred Awabakal lands –

This is where it all began

The Great Spirit and his Creation

 

On the other side of town,

Lies another creation

This time, the work of Man -

An Aluminum smelter

The forge for the future

That birthed the kookaburra

 

Today, it lies abandoned -

Vanquished despite

Man’s want of conquest;

Only the town remembers

And once in a while

A passer-by

 

Who stops underneath

The giant kookaburra

And wonders;

Until he hears the whispers of eternity

You are in sacred Awabakal lands –

This is where it all began…

 

11^th August 2026

 

The Big Kookaburra at Kurri Kurri, in the Hunter Valley, NSW, is one of Australia's many famous “Big Things”. Standing almost five metres tall, it was unveiled in 2009 to mark the 40th anniversary of the local Hydro Aluminium smelter. The sculpture was made from recycled materials and stands in Col Brown Rotary Park in the centre of town. The kookaburra has become an emblem of Kurri Kurri, appearing in each of the town's more than 60 murals. The Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter, however, closed in 2012, ending more than four decades of aluminium production and leaving behind a major chapter of the town’s industrial history.

 

There is also a deeper layer to the name Kurri Kurri: a 1933 account of the Awabakal language records it as the place where the Great Spirit commenced and completed the creation of human beings.