Well, listen is around about one million people have viewed the giants down at Mandra since they've been open, and they are own an incredibly popular tourism attraction for internationals, nationals and local tourists. They are amazing Thomas Dambo's giants down down through Mandra and we've heard a little whisper that one of them has suffered an attack, an insect attack, a termite attack. And joining us now is Caroline Knight,
the mayor of the City of Mandra. Hi, Caroline, thank you for talking to us.
Oh good oneing signment, lovely to be here with you.
Can we confirm that we've got some termind action on the secret giant.
Look we can look. Unfortunately to this hit, our much loved Lake Clifton Giant is legless at the moment, and I know that sounds terrible, but look, it's actually a lovely story of community partnership that we have down here. But with the City of Manager working with our local mentioned group who conduct Fortnightley checks in on our giants
to see how they're going. And obviously every listeners with no recycled wood out in our bush land, he's always under attack from white ants and Unfortunately, two weeks ago they identified that she had some termites in her feet, which a little bit, a little.
Bit sad, it is unsurprising.
I mean, it's recycled wood, it's soft wood, it's something that a termite would be keen on.
I reckon absolutely, I'd say they would be loving that. But look, the men shed were fantastic in identifying that. And so she's had her legs removed and she has closed at the moment, but we will have her back back in time for school holidays in about two weeks times, and the men Shed are helping with that work, so, you know, really lovely to have that partnership.
Yeah, that's good, well done to them.
And I know I think she was booked in for a SPA treatment about a month ago, but she has been closed for longer than than expected. So how long until she's got her legs back in is back in action.
We're hoping two weeks, so bicycle holidays is the plan. We're just giving her a really good pedicure. She's going to look beautiful when she's back there and be ready to welcome new visits. And as you know, she's been have all been so incredibly popular with community, and I think in the first year we had I think it's about over eighty six thousand visitors from outside the region in just the first year alone.
Yeah, that is they are fantastic.
Well, I think I read somewhere that maybe twenty twenty six, somehow or other, the schedule winds up. What does that actually mean? Do they get removed or do you are they handed over to you?
What happens in twenty six?
Well, Thomas, so the life expectancy is about three to five years, And Thomas Danbo is very much of the view that they were made of recycled material and nature will take its course, and you know, they will decay, and so you know, when webfoul, we'll do maintenance to keep them going for as long as we can, but when they get to a point where they're no longer structure, we found will have to remove them.
Yeah, okay, so they do.
We're trying to keep that because they are so popular, Oh of course.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I know there's a big volunteer sort of construction team that have been involved right from the start. And when that one was vandalized and burned, I know everyone all was all hands to the wheel so what will you do? Will you try and maintain them yourselves? There are an amazing attraction. What will you do if they do start to fall apart?
Yeah, the city has an ongoing maintenance plan and you know we're doing that all the time, just keeping them going as long as we can. But obviously, you know, when they do reach end of life, which was Thomas Dambo's desire, they will be no more. So that's you know, we'll keep that going for as long as we can. And that's why that partnership with the menship is so so lovely. That the fact that they go out there every two weeks and check out so we can treat things like turn nights.
Yeah, any concern for any of the other giants, Caroline, No.
I think that the men sheed are out there fortnightly, so they're checking regularly, so you know, we are alerted early. And that's the most important.
Thing part of the appeal of this. And Danbo himself is a recycler and a forager. We all know that we will know that about him. Can you change the type of wood you use? Because I spoke to one of my cardenter mates about this and he said that type of wood is ice cream for termites?
Yes, I know too much. Look that was that was Thomas Dambo's desire. I mean, he's the artist. Obviously he's aware of that. Are these guys. He does have them across across the world. You know, he chose to use that because it was discarded recycled wood, knowing full well that they are vulnerable, and you know, there's an incredible amount of time that goes into building them and just random fact, I think it's over seven hundred and fifty hours to make each one.
Yep, yep.
But you know, he chooses to use recycled material and we have to respect that.
Yeah, so they do have a shelf life. That's that's part of the Thomas Danbo deal, isn't it. Thank you for talking to us today. Thank you for confirming and good luck. Hopefully she's back up and running and a viewable soon.
Thank you, Simon. I lovely to stop here.