The life-size sculpture of a moa will be created in the township with the help of a $3000 grant from Meridian's Waitaki community fund.
The flightless moa were once prevalent in the Duntroon area and the surrounding Waitaki Valley.
Duntroon and District Development Association spokesman Mike Gray said the moa would be erected on the track between Nicol's the Blacksmith and a viewing platform overlooking the brewery hole (Duntroon's original water supply source).
Herbert sculptor Matt King had been commissioned to do the work in steel, which tied in with the blacksmith's.
''The Blacksmith and the brewery hole are two other visitor attractions that have undergone restoration with funding from the Waitaki community fund,'' Mr Gray said.
The association already had funding to build a track to the brewery hole, remove limestone rocks that had fallen into the mouth of the underground stream and build a viewing platform.
The moa was part of a plan to preserve and promote the heritage of Duntroon and the surrounding area.
The moa sculpture would complement the other projects, creating ''a surprise element'' and adding an artistic aspect to the total visitor experience in Duntroon, he said.
Meridian allocated almost $49,000 in the latest round of the Waitaki Community Fund. Other projects included. -St John Area Committees in the Waitaki Valley $22,000 (assist with the purchase of a Like Pak 15 defibrillator); Twizel Free Kindergarten $10,000 (kitchen renovations); Waitaki Riparian Enhancement Society $5000 (consents process to enhance the salmon programme); Lindis Pass Conservation Group $3000 (trailer and planting spades); Awakino Alpine Trust Board $2100 (purchase of new batteries for the lodge); St John Twizel $1932 (responder holsters); Twizel Pukaki Landcare Group $1875.86 (equipment to remove wilding pine seedlings).
