If you look carefully on a cobbled street in Paris’s Montmartre, you will find a tribute to one of Melbourne’s most beloved identities. A tiny stencil artwork on a building wall depicts the back of a man in a checked shirt holding a giant carrot. Melburnians will instantly recognise the man who for years has roamed the inner-city streets holding a papier-mache carrot sprouting green leaves.
For the artist behind the work, Melbourne-based VKM, the city’s “carrot man” was the perfect subject.
“I loved the silhouette of him in motion because that’s kind of what he does, you know, just pounds the pavement,” she says.
“So it often is from the back of him – ‘oh there he goes with the carrot’.”
To Fitzroy locals, carrot man – who calls the inner-city Melbourne neighbourhood home – is simply known as Nathan.
VKM first photographed him during Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns and over walks in Carlton Gardens a friendship was formed.
“I know him now just as Nathan,” VKM says. “When we were walking, I’m not thinking about the man with a carrot. But then you see people’s faces and people’s reaction and it’s like, ‘oh that’s right, I’m with the guy who’s got the carrot’.”
For such a public persona, Nathan is “humble and shy”, VKM points out.
Guardian Australia approached Nathan for an interview via a friend, but was informed he was happy for the carrot to speak for him.
“He’s a lovely guy and his public thing is really walking with the carrot,” VKM says.
“He came from a performance background, like clowning in hospitals. He feels this hits more people and the outreach is more effective.”
Nathan and his carrot have become a beloved fixture on the inner-city streets of Melbourne over more than a decade. The cartoonish sight sparks reactions ranging from laughter and confusion to squeals of delight. Locals and tourists frequently stop Nathan for a photo.
He’s also popular on the internet. On Reddit, subforums feature photos of Nathan alongside the carrot – with revellers in a local nightclub and reading a book on the tram – while an Instagram page titled “where is carrot man” documents sightings of him across Melbourne.
Nathan has said his motivation behind the carrot is simple – “to make people smile”.
He decided to tote a giant object around town to make it easier to socialise after moving from Brisbane to Melbourne. In a 2019 interview with the Facebook page Humans In Melbourne he said he initially found a giant turnip at an op shop. Carrying it home, he noticed the joy it brought to passersby.
Nathan also tried a giant octopus and his personal favourite – a squid – but said neither elicited as much delight as the now renowned carrot.
“The diversity of people smiling and the number of people smiling was much greater,” he told Humans In Melbourne.
“So I just kept carrying the carrot around because it was the most successful thing at making people smile … I’m on a disability pension, you see, and this is my way of giving back. I’m a part of the community, putting smiles on people’s faces.”
The comments on the post are filled with people recalling their own interactions with the local legend.
“You don’t have to physically see him to make you smile! Just reading the story made me smile,” one says.
His friends say his generosity spreads far beyond his strolls with the iconic prop. He donates his retired handmade carrots to charities, op shops and hospitals, and every few months he lays down a row of succulents on Fitzroy’s Gertrude Street – free to a good home. Few recipients would know they were propagated by one the city’s most colourful characters.
He also gives plants to a local aged-care facility and has become known for slipping French postcards – one of his favourite collector items – under the doors of local businesses.
Pene Durston opened her Fitzroy homewares and clothing store 15 years ago. In the early years of the store, a flurry of items – foreign currency, secondhand albums and postcards – were slid through the shop’s letter-front. It was years before Nathan – who is now a friend – turned up one Saturday morning, carrot in hand, to reveal he was behind the mystery gifts.
“It’s been fun over the years, the mystery of these things appearing and the fun of finding out who it was and having a friendship with him,” she says.
“It’s always fun to seem him out and about and how excited people get.”
When Nathan was retiring one of his carrots – made using wire and plastic tape – Durston was eager to own it. The carrot has found a new home in her store’s change room.
Earlier this month, two women visiting from Japan were browsing Durston’s store. One burst out of the change room excitedly, calling her friend over. Pulling out her phone, she showed Durston a photo of Nathan they had taken earlier in the city.
“It shows it’s cross-cultural,” Durston says.
“It’s amazing people’s reaction and the excitement people have in seeing him.”
