Big Prawn has been moved
THE Big Prawn is now sitting atop its new home at the West Ballina Bunnings Warehouse site.
The prawn was built in 1989, and on Tuesday of this week, two cranes lifted the 33-tonne, 6m by 9m crustacean from its previous home and shuffled it across to the roundabout entrance to the site.
It only took a few hours for the prawn to be shifted the 100m or so, with a small crowd looking on. Bunnings managing director, John Gillam, said "we recognised the importance of the Big Prawn to the Ballina community".
The prawn was approved for demolition by Ballina Shire Council in 2009, sparking the community into action to save the crustacean, including setting up a Facebook petition.
The prawn also featured on national and international television at the time - and more recently, was included in the print on Mambo boardshorts.
Bunnings then bought the site and announced it would keep the prawn.
The hardware giant is spending $31m on the redevelopment of the site.
The new Bunnings Warehouse will not only employ the 44 people who work at the current store, but an extra 100 jobs will be created.
