The Big Trout at Adaminaby is to be repainted after the Snowy Mountains community scorned its December 2023 50th anniversary makeover with wrong colours.
The council received $318,000 in a state government grant and employed the company International Conservation Services to complete the job last December. Unfortunately the new colour scheme, as shown above, was nothing like a rainbow trout.
The 10-metre-tall Big Trout was constructed by Hungarian artist Andrew Lomnici in 1973, with concept designs by local businessman Leigh Stewart. Mr Lomnici’s daughter Helen Miller said she was grateful when the Snowy Monaro Regional Council sought to restore the aging Big Trout last year. But when I looked at it I said ‘it’s wrong’.”
The Big Trout was repainted 12 years ago, but she anticipated the 50-year anniversary refurbishment was going to attempt to return the sculpture to her father’s original, more accurate style, shown below.
Snowy Monaro Regional Council Mayor Chris Hanna has announced that the painting will be redone. A council spokesperson said funding remained from the original grant money and that the Council hopes to have the sculpture repainted before winter after some consultation with the community about an appropriate colour scheme.
