The Big Day. Laverton Train Station.

Well, 'big day' is probably an understatement as it exceeded all our expectations. But, I shall start from the beginning... this was the big moving day. The truck arrived on time at 8.00am and began backing down our road and into the drive.

It was a tight fit around the gate post.

Rhys, the truck driver got down to this point, hopped out and realized that the drive was too tight. Even if he could go down, he wasn't happy about manoeuvring once he got there. The company had photos of the drive and thought it all looked fine but coming here was another matter...

After some deliberation, Rhys rang his Dad who came with a smaller truck. We thought we could load the sculpture on the small truck and take it up the drive to the semi trailer. This is the crane part of the semi, lifting the sculpture. All that careful fibre glassing in the centre was put to the test here and it held up beautifully.

And now, lowered onto the smaller truck.

The cradle was also tested out and found to be working well. Unfortunately, the sculpture  didn't fit properly on the truck. The over-hang was too large, and the height of the truck base meant that the sculpture would never make it out under the trees. It looked like the whole thing had to be cancelled at this point. It was now midday and no-one was going to come to our aid on a Sunday afternoon, a couple of weeks before Christmas. But after a very persuasive and compelling phone call from Tanya, the project manager, we fortunately pushed on and persevered.

A crane driver who was a friend of Rhys's father, agreed to come out after his work, and so at about 4.00pm, we managed to get the sculpture on the move again. This is Grant and Rhys with his Dad looking on and the ever present dogs.

The crane was a beauty. It had no trouble steering the sculpture around the trees with the help of Rhys, his Dad, Grant and I.

I put a bunch of photos of this bit, because it really was extraordinary seeing it floating down the road.

And finally, out to the main road and onto a huge truck - the third for the day. This one was over-size and required a pilot who was also commandeered at the last minute. Pretty amazing on a Sunday afternoon! This was about 5.00pm.

So, finally, it was loaded and ready to go - about 8 hours later than the planned departure time. The pilot was meeting Rhys out on the main road and would accompany the truck up to Laverton with Grant and I following close behind.

During all this time, a traffic management company had been employed to close the car park and manage traffic. They were expecting us at around midday. This was almost 8.00pm. The crane was also on standby and they were being updated on our progress through the day. They would have been very glad to see this truck rolling down the road towards them.

So the sculpture was picked up once again. This time by an enormous crane.

It had to be laid down on the ground and the slings adjusted so that it could be raised up in the right position for installation.

And there it goes on its final journey. The plastic protective sheeting was coming loose and looked like cobwebs.

Flying in the twilight sky.

And down to its new home outside the station.

It was a precision job to get it down onto the footings. We were hoping that Grant had measured it all up with his usual atttention to detail.

Just 4 bolts for this massive weight to be lowered on to with millimetre accuracy. That's Rhys, the truck driver's head peering below and guiding things with Grant. He went above and beyond to stick with us all day, to see the job through and then to continue helping once we were here. The sculpture fitted down perfectly.

And here it is. In its final home. Grant and I took the wrapping off and re-did the safety fence with a very relieved Tanya, the project manager. There were lots of passer-bys with questions and comments. "What is it?" "What does it mean?" Grant answers that it is abstract. It can be whatever you like. People said propeller, 4 leaf clover, green jelly baby, balloons, huggable blob..A bunch of teenagers stopped and chatted for a while. One said they would like to sit up in the middle, another said they might make a secret door and live in it. We finished up after 10pm. All that needs doing is the paving underneath. We were delighted with how it looked and are just hoping that it is enjoyed by the community.

Opening ceremony on Thursday afternoon and then a very long rest for Grant over Christmas.