First Oyster Festival MemorialPrint Page
The replica of an oyster commemorates the first Merimbula Oyster Festival. The Committee donated it to the community at a public meeting two months after the Festival, to commemorate the event.
The Merimbula Oyster Festival Committee devised the concept of using a large replica of an oyster as a promotion for the first, 1979, Merimbula Oyster Festival. The Committee claimed that the ‘world’s largest oyster’ had been found in Merimbula Lake by a local oyster farmer and that it would be unveiled at the official opening of the Festival.
The memorial has acquired the name "Merv" and has become known as "Merv the World’s Largest Oyster", and it is a cement-rendered fibreglass replica of an oyster 93 centimetres tall and 72 centimetres wide.
Location
Address: | Beach Street, Tourist Information Centre, Merimbula, 2548 |
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State: | NSW |
Area: | AUS |
GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -36.888956 Long: 149.911182 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
Monument Type: | Monument |
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Monument Theme: | Culture |
Sub-Theme: | Community |
Actual Event Start Date: | 12-April-1979 |
Actual Event End Date: | 22-April-1979 |
Dedication
Approx. Monument Dedication Date: | 1979 |
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This oyster was donated to the community of Merimbula by the Merimbula Oyster Festival Committee of 1979 Merimbula`s
First Oyster Festival.
Glenn Cox, Con De Zwart
Kath Delahey, Frank Langenhorst
Sue Fane, Greg Wallaston
Ken Walton, Howard Wakeling
It is a genuine copy of a Merimbula oyster, the superb natural oysters grown in the Merimbula Lake.
The oyster is a living breathing animal - A Mollusc or Shellfish inhabiting salt water in the littoral or "between - tide" areas of the sea.