Kensington - Short-Finned Eels

 

One of seventy-two large aquatic sea creatures created by MotherWorks for the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. 

For every country that competed in the Games an aquatic sea creature, native to that country was created and floated across 36 barges down the Yarra River in an amazing sound and light display

After the Commonwealth Games concluded 62 of the sculptures were offered to councils through out Victoria to boost tourism. Many of the sculptures found permanent homes and sadly, since the sculptures weren't designed for the outdoor elements, between the Yarra River and councils placing them outdoors, many sculptures perished.

Firstly, the Short Finned Eels are native to Australia. Secondly, there were 71 countries that competed in the 2006 Games and 36 barges. To avoid one barge having an empty side Motherworks either fore sore this issue early and created two eels for Australia the host country or the sculpture was divided down the middle and used to keep the sculpture numbers even. I'm unsure as to the real story but they made for an excellent photo.