Big Cow memories live on long after move from Yandina to Highfields
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Coming home to a mound of steel shaped like a cow's skull in the backyard was a surprise eight-year-old Geoff Corbett could never have dreamed up.
His father Doug was the engineer behind Yandina's Big Cow, a tourist attraction in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in the 1970s, but for Mr Corbett, the half-finished monstrosity was something new to play on and explore.
Sitting atop a ridge on Ayrshire Road, the Big Cow overlooked the old Bruce Highway and was sculpted from concrete by Hugh Anderson, who also created Rockhampton's Big Bulls.
But three years ago the 12-tonne sculpture, which stands 7.9m high and 12m long, was moved from a coastal dairy farm to the Highfields Pioneer Village, Museum & Park near Toowoomba.
Geoff Corbett said his father made "all sorts of stuff for farmers around the coast" from his workshop in Woombye.
"I remember coming home from school one day and in the backyard was a metal cow skull covered in chicken wire," he said.
"As a kid at that age you couldn't have asked for a better thing to play in.
"All of a sudden, the Sunshine Coast hinterland's answer to Pablo Picasso had landed in your backyard."
With memories of watching the pieces being assembled by crane, Mr Corbett said he also recently took Doug, now in his 90s, to visit the cow at its new location.
"Dad is getting on in years now but he can still remember it," Mr Corbett said.
"It was great, he had a great day up there."
In 2020, the ABC reported the bovine's previous owners had donated it to a Darling Downs historical association after becoming concerned about insurance issues involved with people climbing in and over the structure.
The Big Cow had to be cut in half for transporting to Toowoomba before being reassembled.
Highfields Pioneer Village raised money to install new concrete footings, security fencing and an interpretation centre which is open daily to visitors.
It was reopened by former Toowoomba mayor Clive Berghofer in September 2020.
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