By Chris Thomson | posted on June 7, 2018
THE big yellow chicken on Albany Highway in Mount Barker has been laid low by louts, but fixed, in a turn of events that is yet to be resolved.
Plantagenet Shire CEO Rob Stewart said the fine feathered fixture, which usually roosts beside the northbound lane of the Great Southern’s main road, was found on the ground on Sunday night, May 27.
“Somebody came along and quite literally undid the nuts at its base, and I still can’t work out how they did it because the structure is very heavy and solid,” he said.
“But somehow or other they levered the thing over the bolt part of it and they tipped it over.
“They didn’t vandalise it, or do anything else.”
Mr Stewart said it would have cost the shire between $800 and $900 to re-raise the chunky chicken if its owner, Mt Barker Free Range Chicken, had not come to the rescue.
“It wasn’t as if it was blown over in the wind or anything like that, because everything was done neatly,” he said.
“You’d need four blokes because it’s four shafts to get it on, and you’d need a front-end loader to lift it up, and some chains and all that sort of stuff.”
“So we didn’t want to do it.”
Mr Stewart said that when he rang Mt Barker Free Range Chicken the company was not aware its roadside mascot had headed the way of the dodo.
“They said to leave it with them, and I’ve just been advised that it’s all up and back the way it was,” he said.
“They acted pretty quickly.
“They’ve always been good corporate citizens.”
The big chook has graced the highway for the past six years, after the company received planning and building approval to erect it.
Mr Stewart said when he went to inspect the chicken, he could not budge the bird, which is made of metal.
“It’s a very sturdy chook,” he said.
“It’s a shame that people do have to do these things and put people to expense.”
Mt Barker Police have asked anyone who knows why the chicken almost crossed to the other side to call them on 9851 1122.
Mt Barker Free Range Chicken was contacted for comment.
