Aluminium replica of giant bull ant's nest, the star of Queensland Museum's exhibition

A giant bull ant's nest transformed into the main attraction of Queensland Museum's exhibition, titled the Insect Agency. Weighing around 130 kilogrammes with shimmering silver tentacles almost two metres long, the extraordinary structure hanging from the museum's ceiling is an aluminium replica of the intricate internal framework of the interior structure of a large bull-ant nest.

However, this is not the first time aluminium has been used to unlock creative outputs. Aluminium has been used in many innovative designs, including dresses, jewellery, bag packs, jackets and more. The Queensland Museum team contacted the Australian Ant Art (AAA) hobbyist pair to construct the casting. AAA crafted it from a massive bull-ant nest discovered in Armidale, New South Wales.

"From the aluminium castings, you can see imprints of the ants and what's in some of the different galleries, but in the resin castings you learn a lot more. You can actually physically see what was in each gallery, and you can see the different soil types at different levels, and what the galleries were used for. It's always really interesting to wait to see what we are going to find," said Stephen East.

The AAA team required five days to construct three nests of different dimensions, of which one was selected for the display. The process involves melting aluminium, which is then poured into the ant nest. Once the molten metal has solidified, the ant nest casting is unearthed.

"The stuff they can build underground is phenomenal. It's amazing how a tiny little hole with a little mound that you can just walk past leads to an entire structure these ants have created below the ground. And they've done it in the dark, with no power and no navigation tools!" he added.