Corrugated iron gumboot

Entering Taihape, Enid is struck by a gumboot.

...
Enid: Is that a...?
Nobby: A gumboot, yes. What else could it be?
Enid: It's made of ...?
Nobby: Corrugated iron.
Enid: It's a symbol!
Nobby: Dead right. It's Taihape's identity. Everything is made of corrugated iron and everyone gets around in gumboots.
Enid: Don't they, well, care?
Nobby: About how they look? The impression they make? They're proud of it. Rome has its Collosseum, Sydney has its opera house, and Taihape, well, Taihape has its corrugated iron gumboot.

_________

Voiceover

Cultural identity may arise from historical events, people, activities, or artifacts. Taihape, in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, doesn’t have such a long history, being established in 1894, and a current population of about 2000 people. Despite being a pretty country town set in picturesque scenery, the name "Taihape" has connotations of being the archetypal remote, rural New Zealand community. Some citizens decided not to react defensively to such attitudes, rather in fact to glorify its identity which is now enshrined in gumboot “sculptures” and an annual “Gumboot Day” being held since 1985 on the first Tuesday after Easter.

Gumboots as identity? The chorus of Fred Dagg’s Gumboot song still reverberates in my head from the 1970s:

“If it weren't for your gumboots, where would ya be?

You'd be in the hospital or infirmary

'coz you would have a dose of the 'flu, or even pleurisy

If ya didn't have yer feet in yer gumboots.”

...