In Australia we absolutely love our national treasures, no word of a lie. Don Bradman, Naomi Watts, Frank Walker from National Tiles – we bloody adore ’em.
We tend to immortalise our most beloved exports too, usually in a sign, or a brick in an iconic venue, or maybe even a statue in their honour. On the weekend I saw a children’s coin-operated Steve Irwin car ride at the shops with a memorial plaque on the side. I think we know how to respect our fave Aussies.
But what about our music legends? There’s a severe lack of permanent things giving tribute to the artists and very good tune dawgs of our fine brown land.
One particularly smart man by the name of Joseph has thought up the idea of chucking up a statue of arguably our #1 Golden Boy, Flume (aka Harley Streten), in his glorious stomping ground of Manly.
He’s got a petition running which is just about to hit it’s initial 500-person goal, pushing the Northern Beaches Council and Warringah Council to do the right thing and get ya best boy permanently celebrated right on the friggen wharf for everyone to admire.
Joe spoke with PEDESTRIAN.TV about what inspired him to create the push for the statue, and what his grand plans are now he’s hit 500 names.
It was something we have been toying with as a joke for some time now in the office. It goes without saying that Flume has become a bloody superstar and what better way to cement that stardom than with a pile of whatever it is they use to make those public sculptures in his home town.
I had no idea it would get this much traction so far, but clearly it is what the people want! If this gets to 1000 signatures I’ll be dropping this in the Warringah Council’s ‘urgent suggestions’ box.
We asked Joe who else should be commemorated in stone or marble or whatever, and he had some pretty good ideas.
Yunupingu, Barnsie, Kylie Minogue for sure, and I reckon Peter Garrett as well, but he’d have to a really surreal, gangly kind of sculpture with exaggerated features. The late Michael Hutchence actually has a petition for statue that has nearly 6000 signatures so that could legitimately happen!
Who knows, maybe it’ll be made out of bronze and people can rub Flume’s butt for good luck? Superstition is a funny thing.
Actually, you know what, fuck that. It should be a big Flume. I want this statue to make it into our great list of big things in Aus. Big Banana, Big Prawn, Big Flume.
