Big Prawn

The Big Prawn is a large roadside sculpture located in West Ballina, New South Wales, on the Bruxner Highway at the entrance to Ballina. Built in 1989, the 9-metre tall concrete and fibreglass prawn is one of Australia's well-known 'Big Things'. Originally built to advertise the former Ballina Prawn Palace, it now stands in the Bunnings Warehouse car park and is a popular photo stop symbolising Ballina's prawn fishing heritage.

Visitors can expect an outdoor, free-standing 9-metre tall prawn sculpture situated on a paved area in an open retail car park at the junction of River Street and Kerr Street. The site is fully open-air with no enclosed building to enter. Visitors can walk around the base, view the sculpture from all sides, and take photographs. The surroundings include a hardware store car park, highway frontage, and nearby shops and cafes. There is no guided tour or interior access.

Constructed in 1989 by Eben Platt and commissioned to mark the entrance to the Ballina Prawn Palace. The prawn was built from concrete and steel with a fibreglass exterior. After the Prawn Palace closed, the sculpture fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition. In 2013, Bunnings Warehouse acquired the site and funded restoration, including structural repairs and a new tail, preserving it as a roadside landmark.

The Big Prawn is one of Australia's approximately 150 'Big Things' - large novelty structures built as roadside attractions. It is an emblem of Ballina and the Northern Rivers region's prawn fishing and seafood industry, and a widely recognised symbol of Australian road-trip culture.