The Australian Farmer (also known as the Big Farmer) is a

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

located in

Wudinna Wudinna is a town in South Australia. The area was first settled by Europeans in 1861 when Robert George Standley lodged a claim for of land surrounding Weedna Hill ('weedna' later became changed to Wudinna which may be an Aboriginal word meanin ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

. Regarded as one of Australia's Big Things, the

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

sculpture stands at in height, and weighs in the vicinity of 70 tonnes. It took 17 years to produce from initial proposal to the final unveiling in 2009, and two years for the artist, Marijan Bekic (with the assistance of his son, David), to carve. The stylised work of a farmer represents the early settlers of the region, with carvings symbolising grain and sheep found within the sculpture.

History

The former District Council of Le Hunte (now

Wudinna District Council Wudinna District Council is a rural local government area on central Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Its seat is Wudinna, on the Eyre Highway, west of Adelaide. The district's economy is largely driven by agriculture, mainly cereal crops, with ...

) first proposed the idea of a community project in 1992, and the focus quickly moved to the construction of a memorial to the early settlers of the region. Given that the area is well known for its

, it was decided that the project should incorporate the material, and a request for tender was announced in 1999. Croatian-born artist Marijan Bekic responded to the advertisement, producing a scale model of his concept, and this was shown to the local community. With the community's support of the concept in hand, the council sought a grant to fund the project. Although this was not forthcoming, land was donated by the Wudinna & Districts Telecentre, various companies provided sponsorship, and local residents offered food and accommodation for the artist. The result was that the project commenced in 2007, with a projected construction time of twelve months. The project ended up taking the artist and his son two years to complete, and it was unveiled on 17 April 2009. The unveiling was preceded by a number of local events, including a live

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's

Peter Goers Peter Goers is a South Australian amateur actor, director, critic, columnist and current host of the radio program ''The Evening Show'' on ABC Radio Adelaide, which broadcasts throughout South Australia and to the "Silver" city of Broken Hill. ...

. The official launch was attended by over 1000 people, with Federal and

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

politicians

Rowan Ramsey Rowan Eric Ramsey (born 4 August 1956) is the Liberal Party of Australia member for the House of Representatives seat of Grey since the 2007 election, succeeding previous Liberal member Barry Wakelin. Grey covers most of rural South Australi ...

and

Liz Penfold Elizabeth Meryl Penfold (born 15 September 1947) is an Australians, Australian retired politician who represented the seat of Electoral district of Flinders, Flinders in the South Australian House of Assembly for the Liberal Party of Australia ...

making an appearance. In August 2009, the Australian Farmer was nominated for a Ruby Award in the "Community Impact (over $100,000)" category.

Design and construction

Standing at in height, the work was hand-carved from of local granite. The sculpture is a stylised representation of a farmer. While it takes a basic human form, the top represents the sun, while in the body are carved grain crops.

Sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...

are placed at the foot of the statue, representing the sheep farmers in the district as well as creating the feet of the figure when viewed from a distance.

References

{{coord, 33, 2, 49.25, S, 135, 27, 37.61, E, display=title Big things in South Australia 2009 sculptures Granite sculptures Agriculture in Australia Colossal statues in Australia