The Possum & Fergie Statue’s

The "Possum" lived for 50 years as a hermit around the Wentworth area.

Possum Statue

A life size statue of a man known as "The Possum", who when disgruntled by life during the "Great Depression" took to living off the land in and around Wentworth. He slept in trees (thus his name), walked many miles, swam the rivers, living the life of a hermit and avoided human contact for some 50 years before his death at the age of 81 years.

A proud man, "Possum" worked for the graziers in exchange for food and clothing, although he would always wait until the folk had left for town before he began his work. He was known to upset some of the property owners when he let the dogs loose because he felt sorry for them.

Hear his story via voca-phone by placing 20c in the green metal box close to the statue.

Fergie Memorial

The ’little grey’ Ferguson tractor wrote itself into the annals of local history through the integral part it played in saving Wentworth fron the 1956 floods.

Flood waters raced towards Wentworth via BOTH the Darling and Murray rivers, resulting in a third of Wentworth going under water. Wentworth became an island in an inland sea.

The tenacious will of the Wentworth people saw them stay and fight to save their town from ruin when all authorities were urging them to evacuate. Media at the time were particularly harsh towards those staying put. Terms such as ’madness’, ’sheer folly’ and ’mock bravery and madness’ were reported.

The small Ferguson tractors were prevalent in the area at the time and prove superior to other machinery as they were light, manoeuverable, coped well with the sticky, slippery clay of the levee banks and posed little danger of collapsing them.

During the floods the roar of the little Fergies could be heard 24 hours a day as volunteers patched and built crumbling and new levee banks to fortify Wentworth from the rising waters.

Once the floods began receeding, people were so exhuberant in regards to their success that one fellow drove his Fergie tractor into the local hotel (with the front wheels reaching the bar) and celebratory drinks were had all around.

An earlier monument to the town-saving Fergies was erected at the corner of Adelaide and Darling Streets in Wentworth in 1959 and still remains there to this day. This earlier cairn is the world’s first monument to a tractor and is worth visiting also.

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