Now you know we love big things, prawns, bananas, pineapples, beer bottles, but we do them so badly. Out here we just keep propagating the myth, creating the tacky and the desperate . . . sorry country Queensland but you've hit a new low with this one:
Govts will spend $200,000 on a meat ant tourist attraction for Augathella. (Murweh Shire Council) Where the fuck that is I don't know,
A small town in south-west Queensland will build a 'big meat ant' statue in an effort to attract more tourists.
Augathella is known as the 'home of the meat ants' and it is planning to initially spend $200,000 on a meat ant tourist attraction and gardens.
The local council and the State Government have each contributed $100,000 towards the project.
Murweh Shire councillor Cecil Russell says it is hoped local Indigenous groups will also have input into the project.
"We hope to have this big meat ant in the park," he said.
"We've engaged an architect to look at it and he is going to come up with some ideas. We really don't know at this stage whether it will be steel, or fibreglass or what it'll be.
"One of the things we'd like to do is see if we could light it at night-time, maybe with solar lights, just so there's a big sculpture there outlined with the lights."
Cr Russell says the statue and gardens could help attract more tourists.
"If you can stop tourists for a short time in these little communities, I guess it's all you can hope you can do," he said.
"We're not a big community, we are part of the Murweh Shire and they've got their Cosmos Centre running very well at Charleville.
"If we can create another tourist arm off that just to keep the tourists in our shire a bit longer then we must benefit from it financially.
I know these ants and yes we have loads on the property. They're no big deal, they don't bite but I never knew they were called 'meat ants'. Apparently they may be the new natural predator of the Cane Toad . . brought here years ago to eradicate bugs in sugar cane and now an introduced menace . .so go you little meatysauruses . . . so unplug the duke box and grab yourself a cane toad!
Sorry shitty visuals but I did actually buy this album. . hey it was during my yummy mummy need a little excitement period . . .have a 'meaty' weekend!
24 comments:
I wonder are there vegetarian ants too :-)
So why are they called meat ants, huh? And wouldn't a serious exhibition about meat ants and their activities be more to the point than a frigging great monument? If I were a tourist, that would be more likely to stop me than a visual gimmick.
I'm with Nick - I think I'd expect to see a giant glass sided colony of the little fellas - a bit more interesting methinks!!!
Used to think he was gorgeous,ab-so-lutley!! but have you seen him lately?? - a bit more research might make you wish you'd stayed firmly in the "little excitement period".Has a penchant for throwing things too -starting off with a brick through the school principal" office window graduating to a car alternator through a pub window,and was hospitalized a few years back, a middle-aged man, squirming around blubbering on the floor with his pants down (presumably not longer leather ones, and luckily not surrounded my meat ants.)
meat ant has a distinctive ring to it...odd. on the glass side colony band wagon, seems a whole lot more interesting than a statue. looking forward to a meaty weekend...lol.
Tsup*!* I think one of those statues would look bloody marvy on top of that big white tent building in your harbour Hels ;)
haha I bought that album too and Pam has got me chuckling away.
Have a lovely weekend dodging those ants, I hear they are in training to sabotage the cane toad races ...
WHY?OOOOH WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??BUT...WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????OH!
Apart from that have a wonderful day and weekend Baino,lots of great moment with cotton socks!;D
'Meat ants' are from Argentina I believe! ha! Our ancestors will dig that thing up in 10,000 years and wonder WTF?!
Someone alert PETA!-LOL! And I too, had this album in my collection( had, that is )...cheers to the week-end Baino :)
Why yes, that's an EXCELLENT use of our currently available municipal resources in these times of economic peril.
:-O
I'm with Quickroute, only I'm saying WTF?? right NOW.
Have a great weekend hon!
oh my How I could put that to good use with all the homeless people - let's ask mr. nobel Peace Prize why so many kids are homeless. sorry I'm bitter.why don't they pick someone who actually does something..I was hoping you had picked himtoday
A meat ant statue? It sure as heck wouldn't attract me as a tourist.
That town council sounds a daft as our city council who spent a vast sum studying the feasibility of a giant rainbow arch as a tourist attraction. The public enthusiasm was not there so then they decided a giant cowboy hat would get people to come. Puleeeze! Who would drive here or stop here to see such a monstrosity?
What are they thinking?
Being an entomologist, I think that it is a splendid idea!
I am especially dense today. I don't get it. A special tour site of ants?
Love Renee xoxo
That's hilarious! What some people will do.
ant farms producing meat ants?
is there nothing you aussies WON'T eat? :P lol
as for a statue of one? FUGHEDABOUDIT!
Dunno Conor . . .I think they eat anything . . .cane toad for breakfast?
Not sure why Nick other than they're omnivorous and are useful for getting rid of sheep carcasses apparently. Actually a display would be much better.
I don't think Murweh's a hot tourist spot somehow Kate! Their tourist info centre brags outback tours and heritage trails . . basically it's in the middle of nowhere.
I didn't know that Pam. I just liked his clothes! Sounds like a bit of a 'tanty' man
I have them in the back yard but didn't know what they were. Maybe that's why I don't find any dead rabbits around Brian, except the road kill! Mind you, if they work on cane toads,that's a good thing.
Awww c'mon Bimbimbie, you don't mean the ol oprey surely , , ,it's bewfuls . . yeh I bought it too. I think there were 2 decent songs on it and the rest was crap.
Because Ms Bracci . we love BIG things! And the big Merino is taken!
Are they? Apparently they're the most conspicuous, abundant and ecologically important group of ants in Australia . . .unlike Argentine Ants which are one of the world's worst pests and one of the biggest feral subcultures in Australia. I know, they're so tiny they get into the honey and cordial even when the lid's on!
Nice self portrait there Subby? Branching out into the yarts?
Hehe Suze . . .they're obviously affected by drought and need another source of income! Ant watching might do it!
It was an odd choice iBeati given that he hasn't actually DONE anything yet! I quote:
Borgen argues that rewarding Obama now devalues the Nobel. “It’s too early to award a peace prize to a president who has only been working eight months and has really done nothing for peace,” he says. “A president who plans to send 40,000 soldiers to fight a war in Afghanistan should not be given the Nobel peace prize especially given that the numbers of civilians being killed is at the same level as it was under George W. Bush.”
Too much midday sun Darlene . . .haha . . Cowboy hat! We'd love it!
Now Debs why am I not surprised. As long as they get the anatomy and proportions right!
No, Renee darling . . .a big fibreglass ant! Just plopped out in the desert somewhere . . apparently tourists willl flock like ants to see it! DUH!
I know Kate, more money than sense, I wonder if it will ever get off the ground.
Haha . . nah we don't eat ants, we'll leave that up to the Chinese, they eat everything!
meat ant on a stick.
"Meat ants"? "Cane Toads"? Thats not that bad!, We have Fire ants, which sting like bees, and just about every poisonous snake and spider in north America! LOL!
Where the hell did you come up with Possum??? HAHA!!
Just saying "meat ant" grosses me out!!!!
no one needs to apologise for owning Adam Ant
as for the giant meat ant....
:O/
What the HELL are meat ants?
....and I bought Adam and the Ants too....
You are NOT going to believe my word verification - ocker!!!
In Dublin, the Capital of Ireland, they put up a spike.... sorry, a spire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spire_of_Dublin
It looks ridiculous! Give me a sculpture any day.
Im not sure what those meat ants are and whether different towns etc call them different things but the meat ants I remember when I was squatting on a mission in NSW would swarm and bite and bite and bite and it was like burning if you were stupid enough to wear thongs and drip your juices from your bbq'd sausages onto your feet. I fear the mighty meat ant and seeing a giant one would just freak me out hehe. Nothin can be as bad as that stupid Giant worm down south tho.
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