The Big Trout

Artist(s) Name

Andy Lomnici

Description of Work

The town of Adaminaby in the Snowy Mountains is a popular trout-fishing spot and an ideal place for the ten metre high Big Trout to live. Weighing in at 2.5 tonnes it holds the illustrious title as the world's biggest trout.

In 1969 Leigh Stewart suggested to the then Adaminaby Lions Club that a sculpture of a large trout be commissioned. Andy Lomnici, a Hungarian born artists and sculptor, was living in Adaminaby and felt the town would benefit from a sculpture. After hearing about Leigh’s idea, Andy, also a keen trout fisherman, met with Leigh and offered to build the trout from fibre glass. 

The first thing Andy did was to freeze a trout in the proposed shape of the sculpture and sketch it from several angles. These drawings were transferred to enormous sheets of paper the size of the finished sculpture. The next step was to shape the steel frame and reinforcing, this was done at Anglers Reach. The Snowy Mountains Authority insisted that a strengthening steel channel be inserted to ensure that a vertical sculpture would withstand high winds. The structure was then moved to a shed in Adaminaby where the steel frame was covered in wire netting and wrapped with fibre glass and resin. The last stage was to paint the trout using traditional colours mixed with resin.

The project took four years to complete and was in position ready for the official opening of the Adaminaby Lions Club Picnic Park on the 3rd November 1973.

Over the decades maintenance and repairs were undertaken many times, but after 40 years of winds, snow and high summer temperatures the Big Trout needed an extensive makeover. A community group, the Friends of the Fish Committee, formed in 2010 and along with the Lake Eucumbene Chamber of Commerce and Snowy River Shire Council, raised funds and supervised the repair work. In 2012 the Big Trout was carefully repaired and by the summer was finally returned to its original beautiful condition.

Location of Art
Adaminaby’s Picnic Park, Denison St, Adaminaby NSW

Installed
1973

Primary Materials
Fibre glass over wire mesh and steel frame.

Type
Sculpture