Albion Park: home of the giant ugg boot?

By Alex Arnold
Updated November 5 2012 - 10:06pm, first published September 4 2009 - 11:03am
Shellharbour City Council would like to erect an "iconic monument" in Albion Park's Mood Park. Photo digitally altered
Shellharbour City Council would like to erect an "iconic monument" in Albion Park's Mood Park. Photo digitally altered

Coffs Harbour has the Big Banana, Goulburn is home to the Big Merino - could Albion Park be home to the Big Ugg Boot?Shellharbour City Council's $3.3 million upgrade of the Albion Park CBD includes plans for an "iconic monument" in Mood Park, at the Terry St and Tongarra Rd intersection.Last month a "Welcome to Bogan-ville sign" appeared at the intersection after Albion Park was nominated by an online magazine as one of Australia's top 10 "bogan" suburbs.

  • We're bogan and proud of it
  • Albion Park reacts to bogan tag: ugg!It was a nomination greeted with good humour - even pride - by locals.A street poll at Albion Park led to the suggestion that a big ugg boot could become a more permanent symbol of bogan pride.In the region's early days, the intersection was an important South Coast junction and meeting place and the council hopes the development of an icon in Mood Park will help to re-establish the significance of the location.Shellharbour council's director of operations and services Arthur Webster said it would be up to the Albion Park community to decide on a feature."We're very keen to see what that could be and what they would support," he said.He said the "iconic monument" could be a tourist attraction or something to create a meeting point."Something that people can relate to, a place where people feel comfortable gathering or having functions."It is totally conceptual, and we would love to hear what the community would like."It doesn't really lend itself for something big ... although we could have got the big prawn cheap!"Mr Webster said people had been working hard developing themes for Albion Park and the popular Albion Park Outdoor Camp Kitchen Challenge was one thing that came to mind."A giant camp oven? You never know." The ugg boot has been described as the definitive item of Australian foot fashion.One claim is the ugg boot can be traced to Kevin O'Brien who "invented" the boots in Wetherill Park in the 1960s.In 1996, Kevin's son Wade said sheepskin boots were not new, but he laid claim that his father was the originator of the ugg boot in a commercial sense.
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