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Bridgewater teenager Maggie Coghlan and her father Frank are giving older brother James and neighbour Michael Webb a run for their money in the Bendigo Advertiser Hay Bale Sculpture Competition.
The Coghlan's are storming the gates of the hay bale castle on the Webb's neighbouring property with an enormous, and very hungry, caterpillar.
Drawing inspiration from the classic children's picture book by Eric Carle, Maggie said the caterpillar was born out of a sense of competition.
We thought we'd better have a bit of competition with them.
- Maggie Coghlan
"A lot of people like the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and I loved it as a kid but I think it was dad's idea, he kind of got it all together and we just did a few designs and that came up because the colours were quite easy, it was just red and green," she said.
"We weren't actually going to do it until (Michael and James) said they were going to do one so we thought we'd better have a bit of competition with them."
Maggie said the project was a team effort which took the pair about half a day using two and a half litres of paint.
"We did it together, I didn't really do much of the creation, I was more designing it, dad did the putting it together and I just painted it and stuff like that," she said.
The Coghlan's property is located just north of Bridgewater on the Bridgewater-Raywood Road.
Other entries include Serpentine couple Prue and Luke Milgate's solar powered hay bale Christmas tree sculpture on the Loddon Valley Highway; Jenni Hedstrom and family's Mr and Mrs Claus on their Chanters Lane property in Tylden; Nicole and Darryl Laity's Christmas themed hay bale aeroplane at their Romsey Road property in Darraweit Guim; the Hernon family's extreme sports Santa in Allies Road, Maiden Gully; Narelle and Rodney Broom's Christmas tree and teddy bears on the Calder Highway near Collins Road and James Coghlan and Michael Webb's castle on the corner of Auchmore Road and the Loddon Valley Highway.
All entries will go to a public vote on the Bendigo Advertiser website from January 21 to decide a winner.
The winning entry will receive return airfares for two adults and five nights at the Sun Island Legian Hotel and Spa, and five nights at the Santi Mandala Villas and Spa in Bali.
The $4500 prize is sponsored by Grogan's Machinery and Bendigo Travel and Cruise Centre.
Sculptures must be built on an entrant’s property close to a public road using at least one large or five small bales.