Giant kookaburra, just for laughs

Some have taken to baking to while away the hours during coronavirus lockdown; others embrace gardening. For Farvardin Daliri of Australia it was the perfect opportunity to complete his magnum opus: a 15-foot-tall replica of a bird known as a laughing kookaburra.

He said he just wanted to cheer people up in these gloomy times.

“If a bird can laugh, why not me?” said Daliri, 65, who unveiled his work this week by towing the kookaburra, a beloved Australian icon, around his block in suburban Brisbane, where it cackled its distinctive laugh through a sound system installed inside.

He posted video of his project online without much thought. To his shock, it went viral, hailed by some as a perfect antidote for this moment. Others were simply confused.

“Surely there are medals we can give out for something as grand as this,” one Twitter user said. Another asked, “This amazing. Also, why?”

Australians are no strangers to gigantic objects. Across the country, oversize landmarks — known as the “Big Things” — draw road trippers to country towns: the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, the Big Lobster, to name a few.

The kookaburra was intended for an arts festival, the Townsville Cultural Fest, which Daliri helps organize as executive director of the city’s Intercultural Center. It’s just his latest whopping work. He has also made a 15-foot-tall koala, a 200-foot-long carpet snake and a 33-foot-long crocodile.

“When something is big, it imposes itself on you,” he said. “It becomes undeniable.”