The Clyde Mountain rocking horses are usually located about 18 km before Batemans Bay on the Kings Highway. Photo: Facebook.
A source of joy for some – and an eyesore to others – the Clyde Mountain rocking horses have been a stable part of drivers’ journeys along the Kings Highway for years.
Now it appears the horses have bolted, with the majority disappearing without a trace.
Comments on social media suggest the rocking horses vanished sometime during the Easter long weekend, but no one is sure who is to blame.
Region asked Transport for NSW, ForestryCorp and the Eurobodalla Shire Council if any of their workers were behind the removal.
All responded that they weren’t responsible.
“Forestry Corporation was not involved in the removal of the rocking horses from Kings Highway,” a ForestryCorp spokesperson said.
The section of the Kings Highway that’s home to the horses is managed by Eurobodalla Shire Council on behalf of Transport for NSW (TfNSW).
A TfNSW spokesperson confirmed it had not received any complaints about the rocking horses and had not removed them.
A Eurobodalla Shire Council spokesperson said the environmental services team also hadn’t received any complaints.
“Our rangers have been instructed to keep an eye out when patrolling up that way,” they said.
Some of the horses were decorated with fairy lights in recent times, leading to suggestions they were a driving hazard.
They certainly receive a mixture of love and hate online.
Some definitely aren’t fans.
“I regularly travel the Kings Hwy and enjoyed the first few little horses arranged on the logs. But there are so many now they are both a dangerous distraction and people are stopping to add more or photograph etc,” one person wrote.
“It is pollution; I would bet my left *** that all the stuffed toys are made from plastics and synthetic fibres. This will all end up in creeks and waterways and eventually food chain of native animals. So it’s not cute, it’s cute looking rubbish,” wrote another.
While others feel they add some fun to the windy trip.
“I enjoy seeing them and I’m an adult. I think they are awesome and so is Pooh bear corner. It makes me smile,” wrote one fan.
From another: “Oh lighten up people. If you don’t like [it] … Don’t look and let others enjoy the fun.”
