Another of the shire's iconic bird sculptures has honoured neighbouring Murrindindi Shire with the installation of the Big King Parrot in the town of Eildon. At the same time, the popular Big Rosella has nestled into Ruffy on a short-term visit. Tank & Tobin is a name known throughout the area and beyond for creating giant steel birds that have found homes in pubs, parks, public gardens, and small towns across regional Victoria. For Steve Tobin - half of the creative duo of himself and co-artist Tank - the journey from boilermaker to sculptor has involved learning a surprising lesson. It is not all about perfection. Eildon's newest bird in town is striking in its size and brightness. Since the pair began working together in 2018, more than 20 sculptures have been created, each one attracting attention for its size, colour, and character. But Tobin believes the work has evolved well beyond the novelty stage. "They are getting better, because we're getting better at it," he said. "We're sort of getting down pat now, and we've got our style reformed and engineering reformed, so we feel like we're getting better at it, and yeah, we know it works, and it's always evolving." The improvements are not necessarily measured in scale. Instead, the pair have focused on the finer details — feather spacing, paint techniques, engineering, and proportion — in an effort to make the birds feel more natural. Ironically, that has meant moving away from the precision that defined Tobin's former trade. "We got a bit too neat," he said. "As a boilermaker, you always tend to go neat and follow straight lines. "But you've got to chuck that out the window. "There's nothing in nature that's straight or neat." This change is evident in the newer sculptures, where uneven patterns, textured finishes, and imperfections are embraced rather than hidden. "You now sort of see a bit of random spacing with the feathers, different size gaps in between. "The feathers aren't so laid down, we might have them fluffed up a bit. "We are also making sure the paint goes on more, by painting under the feathers." On a temporary stay at the moment, but equally as welcome, is the popular Big Rosella perched outside the Ruffy Hall, which will find a permanent home one day at Longwood at a proposed sculpture park. For now, that is a story for another day. While all of the bird sculptures have become popular attractions in their own right, Tobin sees a bigger purpose behind them, insisting the sculptures are also about giving travellers a reason to stop in small towns that are often bypassed. And to add to the duo's mystique, the Eildon parrot was quietly delivered without ceremony. "We took it off the trailer and didn't tell anyone, just put it up there and made people smile every time they saw it," Tobin said. That ability to spark joy remains the driving force behind the work. "The joy when you have it is seeing other people enjoy it," he said. Tobin hopes the growing collection will help attract visitors to regional communities, supporting local pubs, businesses and tourism operators along the way. "It's hard for the pubs and small businesses to make a buck these days," he said. "If we get people staying and buying a burger and buying a beer, we're halfway there." And despite already leaving a trail of giant birds across the region, Tank and Tobin are far from finished. For a pair of country blokes who started out making farm art, the birds were never really the destination, but just the beginning.
