The bloke who was the first to chart the east coast of Australia remains a big figure – but not quite like he’s been in Cairns in FNQ… For the last 50 years, a 9.7m statue of the explorer has stood on one of the city’s main streets with his right arm extended into, ahem, a problematic pose. But like Cook’s visit to Hawaii, the statue’s time has been cut short and yesterday, it was carted away to a new home 100km away in Mount Molloy. All went to plan as a whopping big crane manoeuvred the figure onto an extended semi-trailer. But his arm – that got the chop, and it will be reattached when he gets settled into a new location. Some Cairns locals are glad the statue is gone because of Cook’s links to Australia’s colonialist past, and others saw it as a feature. At one point the statue was used to advertise a topless bar – how that worked we’re not sure…