IN PICTURES: Bart the Giant Ram’s 40th birthday is celebrated by its original creators and Wagin community

Wagin’s iconic Bart the Ram celebrated his 40th year in style on Saturday with community members descending on Wetlands Park for the occasion. Following the official anniversary of the ram’s creation date on Friday, May 9 the park was buzzing with friends and family who enjoyed face painting, lunch, laser tag, ice cream and live music by Perth’s acoustic pair Red Crown Duo. David Chappell came up with the idea to recognise the town’s prosperity in the wool industry in 1983 with sculptor Andrew Hickson bringing the four-tonne ram to life in 1985, modelling the figure on a champion Woolorama ram. Videos of the construction played on a loop while photos and facts were displayed near Bart for partygoers to reminiscence or discover something new. Mr Hickson passed away in 2020, but his brother-in-law Peter Gardener, who helped in Bart’s construction, was there to celebrate the milestone for the “still very impressive” sculpture. “Look at it, it’s just a beautiful thing,” he said. “It wouldn’t have ended up anything like that without Andrew’s artistic mind.” Four decades on, the fibreglass structure remains the second largest sheep in the southern hemisphere.