The second annual Lake Meran Festival was held last Sunday afternoon with hundreds of visitors coming along to enjoy the music, community, a great afternoon by the lake and to take a look at the star of the event, Grumpy the Turtle.

Weighing in at almost one tonne, Grumpy was designed and built by Bendigo artist Moz Moresi who is considered a local as he grew up in the area. He said that the turtle is a steampunk design which is a British style of sculpture that was developed about 20 years ago.

“This means it is very mechanical to the point you could say it is almost robotic. Even though it doesn’t move, it is meant to look like it has the potential to move,” Mr Moresi said.

“He has many mechanical parts and some of these are up to 100 years old, in particular the chain in his neck and some of the sprockets come off old hay binders.

“People may notice, due to the fact that the Lake Meran area has a huge indigenous history, I have added my little contribution to respect that history on his tail.

“His legs were a bit of a challenge because I couldn’t get enough scrap chain to do his legs, so I had to buy all the chain brand new and there is 25 metres of chain in each leg.

“One of the big features is the shell, that has been made from 54 pick heads.”

Lake Meran Public Purposes Committee president Brett Condely said that it is a very exciting time for the committee with the launch of Moz Moresi’s wonderful turtle sculpture.

“The main reason we started the turtle idea was because Graham Stockfeld, from Turtles Australia realised that there were three different species of turtles in the lake and they are all thriving,” Mr Condely said.

“So, we approached Moz because he is a local boy and a great sculptor, to see if he could make something for us. Now this is three years in the making, this turtle.

“But as you know turtle pace, you can’t go too quickly,” he quips.

President of Turtles Australia, Graham Stockfeld, was on hand to talk to visitors and children about turtles and said that Lake Meran is a special place for turtles. There are many young turtles here and you simply don’t see that in any other place.

“We don’t really know why. My guess is because of the sandy beaches, it spreads the nesting out over a much larger area, making it harder for the foxes to prey on the nests,” Mr Stockfeld said.

“Also, the locals do a lot of fox control, so it could be the combination of the two things, or it could be something else that we don’t know about.

“Lake Meran’s most common species are the Murray River turtles which are listed as critically endangered.”

Mr Condely and his team are very proud of what they have been able to achieve in bringing both the festival and sculpture to fruition.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 27 February 2025.