The Big Merino is a tall concrete statue of a

merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

ram located in

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It was modelled after Rambo, a stud ram that lived on a local property. The Big Merino was built near the

Hume Highway The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of t ...

in 1985. In 1992 the highway rerouted to bypass the town of Goulburn, which resulted in 40 fewer busloads of tourists visiting the Big Merino each day. On 26 May 2007, the Big Merino was moved to a location closer to the new Hume Highway to increase visitor numbers, and is now located near the freeway interchange at a service station. Inside the Big Merino is a gift shop, an exhibition on the history of wool in Australia, and an observatory in the ram's eyes.

References

External links

www.bigmerino.com.au
{{coord, display=title, -34.7726, 149.691, type:landmark_region:AU Big things in New South Wales Buildings and structures in Goulburn Animal sculptures in Australia Concrete sculptures in Australia 1985 sculptures 1985 establishments in Australia Sculptures of sheep Novelty architecture Tourist attractions in New South Wales

See also

References

External links