{"id":711938,"date":"2026-06-03T05:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711938\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:47:14","slug":"plan-to-relocate-robertsons-big-potato-rejected-by-wingecarribee-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711938\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to relocate Robertson’s Big Potato rejected by Wingecarribee Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fate of Australia’s infamous Big Potato now rests in the hands of a New South Wales court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans to relocate the 10-metre spud as part of a supermarket redevelopment were refused by Wingecarribee Shire Council’s planning panel (WLPP) this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The usually brown sculpture has attracted curious looks in the main street of Robertson, in the NSW Southern Highlands, for nearly 50-years, winning the dubious honour of “Australia’s Sh*ttest Big Thing”.<\/a><\/p>\n

Locals have developed a love-hate relationship with the structure, but many found a renewed fondness when it was repainted to become a “Pig Potato”, celebrating 30 years since the release of the film Babe, which was filmed in the area.<\/p>\n

“Ever since it was renovated a year-and-a-half ago to represent Babe,<\/a> it’s kind of given it a revival,” Robertson Business Chamber president Jennifer Macquarie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s created more local pride and attracted more people to come and take selfies, and so people love it even more than they did before.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Round<\/p>\n

The proponent has offered to relocate the Big Potato, or Pig Potato, to make way for a supermarket development. (Supplied: Samuel Hall)<\/p>\n

The super-sized spud sits on land owned by Ken McCourt, beside a small supermarket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wants to move it to another location to make way for a larger supermarket with four specialty shops, parking and a loading dock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A development application (DA) for the $3 million project was lodged with Wingecarribee Shire Council in December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It did not specify where the Big Potato would be replanted, but promised to improve shopping facilities for residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The western portion of the Hoddle Street is not developed, but has been home to Robertson’s Big Potato for nearly 50 years. (Supplied: Scott Lee)<\/p>\n

“The site gives the impression of a public park, but it has always been privately owned land, and the [Big] Potato has been there for some time. So the development would extend onto that vacant land,” DA author Scott Lee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We believe the proposal is suitable. We believed it’s needed. What believe it’s consistent with what council envisions for Robertson.”<\/p>\n

But the council’s planning panel argued on Monday the proposal was not suitable for the 3,450-square-metre Hoddle Street site due to traffic, parking, noise, village character and contamination concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Lee said he was not surprised by the panel’s refusal and remained confident the outstanding issues could be resolved through the NSW Land and Environment Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Side<\/p>\n

The redevelopment involves renovating an existing supermarket and creating more business spaces with 39 new car parks. (Supplied: Scott Lee)<\/p>\n

“Council, for their own reasons, said they wanted the application to be withdrawn rather than sit down and take the time to work through it. But [Mr McCourt] didn’t want to, so he took the other option, which was to go to court,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s work being done to address all those issues.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Lee said the panel’s decision meant the potato was “safe for the time being”.<\/p>\n

Council park scouted as new home<\/p>\n

The DA received 10 written submissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Macquarie, who backed the proposal, said the fate of the sculpture was an issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n

Robertson’s Big Potato was painted into a pig last year in preparation for Babe’s 30th anniversary, which was filmed locally. (Supplied: Jennifer Macquarie)<\/p>\n

“I know there were a few objections to the supermarket simply based on the fact that people didn’t want to lose the Big Potato,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve been told by a member of the family responsible for building it that it was designed to be moved as it’s on skids \u2026 but we really need to investigate if that’s possible.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving a “big thing” is not without precedent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballina’s famous Big Prawn survived relocation, and even grew a tail, when it was moved from a service station to the car park of a hardware outlet in 2017.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"blonde<\/p>\n

Jennifer Macquarie told the council’s planning panel that the proposed supermarket redevelopment is necessary. (Supplied: Jennifer Macquarie)<\/p>\n

Ms Macquarie said finding a suitable new home for the Big Potato might require some council cooperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The only place we can think of [moving the Big Potato to] in the middle of town is Pinkwood Park, which is council-owned,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If it turns out [the Big Potato] can’t be relocated, we’ll still talk to council about Pinkwood Park and how that can be developed as a visitor icon to Robertson.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fate of Australia’s infamous Big Potato now rests in the hands of a New South Wales court.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,346093,120732,99,17535,346090,346092,9669,36371,346091],"class_list":["post-711938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australias-shittest-big-things","tag-big-potato","tag-business","tag-landmark","tag-nsw-land-and-environment-court","tag-pig-potato","tag-robertson","tag-shops","tag-wingecarribee-shire-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}