bronze statue of Nick Cave at Warracknabeal could rival the dog on the tuckerbox

A BIG bronze statue of Nick Cave might soon look down on Warracknabeal, just like the rock singer.

While mocking his birthplace as conservative and strangely lawless, Cave has long sought a statue.

The one he favours would show him bare-chested on a rearing stallion.

And after a new approach to the council, what seemed like a joke is gaining traction.

The council says it will look at the proposal and dares him to go the whole hog and build a 50m-high Nick Cave with a viewing platform.

Cave, famed for fronting seminal rock bands the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds, has told a local paper he has already invited celebrity friends to the unveiling.

"Russell Crowe, my mate, has promised to attend," he told the Wimmera Mail Times by email. "Snoop Dogg, a rapper, says he'll come if they let him into the country.

"Kylie Minogue said she wouldn't miss it for the world; she even promised to wear her gold lame hotpants."

Yarriambiack Shire Mayor Andrew McLeod said the statue could be an added tourist attraction to the town.

Mr McLeod said the town, population 2600, had "a dry creek bed and a few dry lakes" for attractions.

He said the town wouldn't pay for a statue but "if he's internationally known, you'd say he'd be making more money than me".

Cave said the Warracknabeal statue would make Gundagai's Dog on the Tuckerbox pale by comparison.

He wants it on a roundabout, but the only one spare is earmarked for a statue of a dingo and her pups.

"I ask you, what could be more indigenous to Warracknabeal than me?" Cave complained to the paper. "I was bloody born there."

Shire chief executive Ray Campling said latest indications were that the Cave camp was serious.

"Why not go the full hog and erect a 50m statue of Nick riding a horse?" he said. "You could have a tourist information booth and people climbing up the horse's neck and viewing out of the nostrils."

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