The Golden Gumboot is Tully’s big thing to represent the town’s attribute of being “a pretty wet place”. It is a 7.9-metre fibreglass structure with an internal spiral staircase and viewing platform and adorned with a big green tree frog on its side.
The Golden Gumboot was opened in 2003, a project undertaken by the local community. The idea for a Big Gumboot started in 1997 and funding was raised in 2002. With the help of the Lions Club, Rotary, and other volunteers and sources, the big thing for Tully was designed and fabricated by Brian Newell.
The choice of the gumboot itself seems obvious when you know Tully has one of the highest rainfalls in Australia. A tradition was had for the wettest town in Australia to be awarded a rubber boot, based on which town had the most rainfall in a year – an award vied for most by Tully, Innisfail and Babinda.
The height of the Big Golden Gumboot is itself in tribute to the Australian record set in Tully in 1950, 7.9 metres of rainfall in that year. That’s 311 inches for those that like the old scale.
The average rainfall in Tully is an impressive 4.49 metres. The most rainfall in 24 hours was an incredible 1320mm, or 52 inches, during March in 1967.
