Collector's thing for thongs
December 10, 2002

NORTH Queensland thong collector Russell Doig believes he has a potential world record nailed to his back fence.
In just six years, the panel beater from the Ayr district, south of Townsville, has gathered almost 4000 thongs from his local beach.
Mr Doig believes he has the world's largest collection.
"I want to be in the Guinness Book of Records , that's the main thing I want to do," he said.
Mr Doig, who lives minutes away from Alva Beach, began his hobby when he read about a man who had collected 600 thongs.
"I go to the beach a fair bit here and see a lot of thongs, and I thought I might try and beat that," he said.
Mr Doig combs the beach every weekend on one of his two sand buggies, swooping on washed-up thongs with a spike.
The thongs are nailed to his increasingly crowded fence, and the collection recently spilled over to his neighbour's wall.
Washed-up thongs are common on Queensland beaches, leading to other collections such as a thong tree at Cowley Beach and a thong pole on Yorke Island.
"I heard that collections are starting up in a lot of places, it's catching on all over Queensland. It's going to be a big thing, I reckon," he said.

Herald Sun

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