Remember the movie
Eight Ball? No? Me neither. But now I have met Arnold I might seek it out.
After his brief career as a movie prop in the early 90s, Arnold the Giant Murray Cod found his forever home outside Swan Hill railway station.
Fifteen metres long and fibreglass, Arnold is one of those big roadside things we love here in Australia. The
Enchanted Highway he is not, but after more than two decades of wowing passers-by on Murray Valley Highway the big fish is still looking good.
I don't know much about Murray Cod but my friend John had a
book about cod and its historically important role in the northern hemisphere economy. John assured me the book was riveting but each time I saw him with it he was snoozing, the book open on his chest.
I have since learnt that John's cod and mine are not the same. Murray Cod are fresh water fish and in the wild they're not film stars and not made of fibreglass.
Arnold has his own on-site picnic table and an information board. There is shade too, which in often stinking hot Swan Hill makes him a good spot for a roadside break.
I wouldn't go all the way to
Swan Hill just to see the Giant Murray Cod but if you're heading this way he's worth a look.
