07/09/2026
Great story behind the YARRA MEN
🍺 What do a rowdy night out, a 1980s power station, and a giant wooden head have in common? 🍺
Welcome to Yarraman! Famous for its rich timber history, this country town is hiding one of Queensland's quirkiest modern mysteries right in plain sight.
If you take a wander through the C*D, you'll spot the "Yarramen" — giant, stoic faces intricately carved into massive blocks of local wood. The funny part? "Yarraman" actually means horse in Indigenous Australian languages, but these giant wooden men have become the town's unofficial mascots.
And the story of how the very first one ended up outside the Royal Hotel is the stuff of pure country pub legend.
Nobody officially knows exactly who carved the original head over 30 years ago, or even why. But the most widely accepted local yarn? Back in the 1980s, a group of Māori workers employed to build the nearby Tarong Power Station had a massive, celebratory night out at the pub. Legend has it that instead of calling it a night, they found a giant log, pulled out their chisels, and got to work under the moonlight.
By morning, the workers were nursing sore heads, and a giant wooden face was staring back at the stunned townspeople! 😲
The town loved this mysterious midnight masterpiece so much that the Yarraman Business Group eventually commissioned six more unique heads to join the original. They handed them out to local businesses with one strict rule: they all had to be decorated completely differently.
Today, these weird, wonderful, and brightly decorated heads form a scavenger hunt through the town—starting with a beautifully painted local favourite in the courtyard of the Water Inn Cafe.
👇 Over to you: Have you walked the trail to spot all the unique "Yarramen" on your drive through the region? Or do you know the real story of who carved the very first one? Let us know in the comments!
burnettledger.com.au