A handmade laughing kookaburra built in a Queensland front yard is stopping people in their tracks with his enormous size and booming laugh.
Townsville local, Farvardin Daliri has been stuck in Brisbane during the lockdown, spending his spare time perfecting a giant kookaburra in the south-west suburb of Bellbowrie.
He has been inviting local residents to have a "sticky beak", while adhering to physical distancing, as the kookaburra neared completion.
The giant bird stands at eight-and-half metres from the tail to the beak, and four-and-half metres tall.
"It's made with steel round bars that are rounded and put together and locked," Dr Daliri told ABC Radio Brisbane's Rebecca Levinston.
"Then on the top of the holographic steel bars which are light enough to travel, I put natural materials like bamboo skins which are being treated and painted.
"It forms a nice shape of the kookaburra with feathers and a moving jaw."
The kookaburra has been a spectacle for locals in the area who have been hearing his laughter and seeing his head popping above rooftops.
"The lower beak hangs with a motor that pulls a shaft up and down, with a sound effect that is also in-built, so the kookaburra can laugh for everyone to hear," Dr Daliri said.
"As soon as he starts laughing, the other kookaburras start coming around.
"I constructed it on the trailer so it's all one piece with a platform around it so people can have their photo taken with it."
A passion project
The kookaburra was being created for the Townsville Cultural Festival which Dr Daliri founded and now is the executive director of.
Born in Persia [now Iran], Dr Daliri studied fine art and sculpture in the 1970s and came to Australia in the mid-80s as a refugee.
"I started in Tasmania and then worked my way up to Townsville for the past 30 years, where I founded the Townsville Cultural Festival," he said.
He has created other sculptures over the years, including a giant koala.
"We've also made the Jolly Swagman, Slim Dusty and other icons ,but we decided as we need tourism after COVID-19 that I might as well build it in Brisbane and drive it up the coast," Dr Daliri said.
It is unknown if the Townsville Cultural Festival will go ahead in August, yet Dr Daliri said there will be "laughter" theme to the festival after the dark start to 2020.
"We want to have the last laugh over COVID-19 with the kookaburra, we'll also have laughing workshops along the road so we can get everyone laughing around it and make them feel better," he said.
Dr Daliri is planning to drive the kookaburra north to Townsville in the last week of July as restrictions ease.
