The crowd favourite Chiko Roll is causing deep rumblings in Castlemaine – and it has nothing to do with hungry stomachs.
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It is the noise of a growing discontent at having missed out as being acknowledged as the home of the iconic snack.
Artists Peter Milne, Jan Palethorpe, Pie Rankin, Melissa Scott and Leslie Thornton have launched the Get One Into Ya exhibition at Caspa Gallery to highlight Castlemaine's plight.
The exhibition features 25 items, all celebrating the snack and its connection to the town. One could be construed to be as tasteless as some may consider the snack itself – a depiction of aeroplanes being flown into the Twin Towers.
Mr Thornton, the artist behind that art work, said he was trying to use humour as a weapon against terrorism.
"I have used that image in a sort of a humorous way," Mr Thornton said. "I am aware of the sensitivity of it. One of the way we can fight terrorism is with humour. I am not afraid of any backlash. It's not meant to be serious. It is just a bit of fun."
Mr Milne is more concerned about Castlemaine taking its "rightful" place as the home of the Chiko Roll.
"We want to generate a grass-root of moral outrage about a key piece of Castlemaine cultural heritage being stolen by those bullies up the highway in Bendigo," Mr Milne said.
He described the great culinary masterpiece, loved by most footy fans, as akin to "deep-fried vomit".
"It is basically cabbage and chopped up carrot with a little bit of beef fat," he said.
"It is ... like if you vomited it – it is pretty much those ingredients put into a pastry tube and deep fried."
He said the delicacy was a byproduct of a "typically resourceful mind of a Castlemanian", Frank McEncroe, who imagined it to be a "stiffer, harder, bigger" version of chicken chop suey rolls.
It's, um, phallic-like shape meant that it could be eaten with one hand, while holding a beer in the other hand.
But, Mr Milne said, the cult snack had been appropriated by Bendigo, who even snagged a life-sized gold-plated Chiko Roll from its latest manufacturer, Simplot Foodstuffs.
"They claim everything for their own selves," he said.
"It is very tough living in the shadow of a major metropolis like Bendigo."
However, despite the deep [fried] provocation, Bendigo Shire Council's Mayor Peter Cox was in no mood to stir the pot [any more].
He, rather magnanimously, declared that it was "impossible" for an icon such as the Chiko Roll to have just one home.
"It's not uncommon for regional cities and towns to work together and the Chiko Roll is an early example of a partnership that has stood the test of time," Cr Cox said.
"Like vegemite and toast, you can't have one without the other. Bendigo and Castlemaine may just have to share the honour of being connected to such a legendary snack."
In the meantime, he said, the City of Greater Bendigo would be "happy to loan" their life-size gold-plated Chiko Roll to the exhibition.
The group of artists are also calling on the Mount Alexander Shire Council to install a giant installation of a Chiko Roll in the town centre.
But despite having lasting memory of consuming a Chiko Roll or two in her teens, Mount Alexander Shire Council Mayor Christine Henderson was shy of erecting just such a sculpture.
"I am not sure that we would be enamoured of having a large Chiko Roll as a piece of public art in our town," Cr Henderson said.
"We certainly would be happy, along with every other city in Australia that looks like to claim Mr McEncroe as our own.
"It seems like everybody else has had a piece of his history, so given he was born here, I think we should get some credit."
Get one into ya is on display at Caspa, Caspa Lane, off Hargraves Street, Castlemaine until September 27.
