By Gabriella Payne
The huge, iconic golden pheasant statue that sits pride of place at the front gates of Gumbuya World is one step closer to getting an official name, as the theme park has revealed it’s top 10 finalists in the popular naming competition.
After an “overwhelming amount of comments and entries” to the competition, the team at Gumbuya World have short-listed the 1000-plus suggestions and are calling on the public to vote for their favourite before the competition closes at 12pm on Thursday 1 July.
Among the finalists are names including ‘Bunji’, which means ‘mate’; ‘Gumby’, which is short for Gumbuya and means ‘the meeting place’; ‘Bruno’, after the man who originally built the giant pheasant in 1978 and ‘Carlos Pheasantana’, after the famous musician.
Alongside these finalists are plenty of other solid choices, but one other name sticks out as it’s got one hell of a story behind it.
‘Indie’, one of the top 10 names in the competition, would see the giant pheasant named after a little girl who was born right near the statue seven years ago – and her mother, Belinda Denney thinks it would be a great idea.
“I’m blown away, it would be a crazy ending to her birth story that’s for sure!” Ms Denney laughed.
Ms Denney, who gave birth to her daughter in an ambulance on the side of the Princes Highway just metres from the statue, said that if the bird ended up being named after her daughter, it would mean her “life’s work is complete” (she joked).
“I grew up in Pakenham and it’s somewhere that I visited as a kid, so I think it would be crazy if it did end up being named after my daughter!” she said.
Now at seven years of age, little Indie knows about her famous entrance to the world and after her family entered her name in the competition, Ms Denney said that “she couldn’t take the smile off her face”.
“Every time we drive past the big bird she says, that’s where I was born!”
“I haven’t told her that she’s in the top 10 yet, she’s going to be blown away,” she said.
Ms Denney and her family, who now live in Upwey, said that although all the names were very deserving, they thought that ‘Bruno’ was also a good choice for the statue, as it paid homage to the man who originally built it.
The full list of finalists are: ’Gumby’, ’Indie’, ’Bruno’, ’Carlos Pheasantana’, ’Goldy’, ’Cooinda’, ’Bunji’, ’Kuryana’, ’Rocco’ and ’Bundy’.
Voters only have a few days to let their voices be heard – so hop to it!
Head to the Gumbuya World Facebook page to ‘like’ or ‘react’ to your favourite name and the winner will be announced soon after the closing date.
