It was this big!

This public sculpture installation, comprising multiple large-scale elements, was commissioned by Martin Spinks as a philanthropic tribute to the fishing culture of Benaraby a small town in the Gladstone Region of Queensland.

Martin engaged Lump to fabricate and install the work for permanent display alongside the Bruce Highway.

Martin’s concept, titled “It Was This Big!”, depicts two oversized hands measuring the length of a barramundi between them. The designers and engineers at Lump Sculpture Studio worked closely with Martin to successfully fabricate and realise his vision.

More than 226 individual pieces of steel were welded together to form the faceted corten steel hands, while the silvery barramundi is constructed from 11 separate aluminium segments. The result is a dynamic public artwork that shifts in appearance depending on the viewer’s perspective.

Standing 4.5 meters tall, the corten steel hands are positioned wide apart, as though demonstrating the impressive size of a barramundi caught in the nearby Boyne River. The barramundi itself is suspended in segmented form between the weathered steel hands with, as one passer-by remarked during installation, “all of the good eating parts missing.”

The sculpture took six months to complete and three days to install, with assistance from Matheson Cranes, a Gladstone-based crane company, and professional photographer Paul Williams from Queensland.

Like many of the iconic ‘Big Things’ found along Australia’s touring routes, “It Was This Big!” celebrates local culture and natural heritage. It proudly joins this tradition as a must-see landmark on the Bruce Highway in Benaraby.