The Berkeley prawn may be dead and gone, but the much-loved statue's memory has been immortalised in the art works that adorn the southern suburb's new "boat seats" in the village plaza.
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The three tiled seats, designed in the shape of boats to reference Berkeley's proximity to Lake Illawarra and fishing history, were officially opened to the public yesterday.
They are a replacement for the prawn sculpture, which was removed in June amid much community protest as it was classed as dangerous and past its use-by date by Wollongong City Council.
While not quite as arresting as the looming two-metre statue, the seats still have a strong prawny flavour: a photograph of the crustacean takes pride of place on one seat, while another - somewhat cruelly - has a recipe for barbecued prawns.
Part of a council project to revitalise the run-down public area square off Winnima Way, they were designed by Shellharbour sculptor Anita Larkin and children from Berkeley Public School and Illawarra Sports High School.
"We wanted to create some sort of identity and expression of Berkeley, and also give people somewhere to sit," Ms Larkin said.
Launching the project in front of dozens of school kids who helped to draw the designs on the seats, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery - who lives in the suburb - said the community had created a useful, artistic space to replace the "unsafe" prawn.
"Eighteen months to two years ago, we had people complaining about this being overgrown and ugly, and now it's been turned around to be quite a nice little boulevard now," he said.
"This is extremely important for the people of Berkeley ... because it gives people pride in their community. Berkeley is right on the lake, it's remarkably naturally beautiful and this highlights that its public spaces can be worthwhile."
But not everyone who attended the launch was convinced about the project's merits, with former Berkeley resident Martina Thiele labelling the replacement of the prawn "an insult".
"[The prawn] was an art work, hundreds of people put their art onto that work and it could have been moved to the new Berkeley community centre's foyer," Ms Thiele said. "Berkeley doesn't have many art works ... and there's no reason why the new seats should be here but the prawn should have been kept."
