The Big Mallee Fowl is in sleepy Patchewollock in Victoria is was installed in 2013, consisting of two Malleefowl around a mound. They are made mainly of corrugated iron sheets and painted to present the features and other features.
The Big Mallee Fowl sit beside the Patchewollock Railway Station constructed in 1919. There is a timber station building which contained the office and lobby. The building has a gable roof and post supported verandah on a low platform. The railway station and goods shed have been restored.
Picnic tables provide a place to stop for a break but there isn’t much else there in the way of facilities. It is worth stopping in though, especially if you are checking off your Australia’s big things list or following the Art Silo Trail in Victoria. The Patchewollock Silo is less than two hundred metres away, an easy walk from the picnic area.
The Malleefowl have been struggling to survive, in spite of a pair able to hatch up to 200 chicks in their lifetime. Clearing of land has removed significant amounts of their habitat and fires make what habitat is available unsuitable , taking up to 15 years before it is suitable for breeding again.
Their normal size is much smaller than this big thing representation of the Mallee Fowl, more around that of a cat.
Malleefowl are not specific to Victoria, historically found in large parts of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Northern Territory. The largest areas are now around the Victoria and South Australia border and the south west of Western Australia. There are populations scattered but from the information sign they are no longer in Northern Territory.