And, just like Radiator Springs, the less romantically-named Kybong is home to a half-forgotten national sporting icon.

Radiator Springs had become the resting place for Doc Hudson who had won two Piston Cups ("He did WHAT in his cup?" asked the film's real star, the slightly dim but loveable Mater ("Kinda like Tuh-mater but without the tuh" (bracket closure overload alert, here come three of them))).

Kybong is the unlikely latest destination for another over-sized big-eyed monster who waltzed into its country's sporting culture a generation ago.

At the opening ceremony to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, a 13-metre tall mechanical kangaroo named Matilda slowly turned its head, winked at Prince Phillip and instantly surpassed the event's co-star Rolf Harris as the planet's most famous Australian product.

The fortunes of those two headline acts would take dramatically different directions in the subsequent years.

Thirty-six years later, as Queensland again hosts a Commonwealth Games, while Harris is notable by his enforced absence, Matilda can be found still smiling (although not winking) among the population of just 370 in Kybong.

Her home is a highway service station which, like Matilda, has clearly known busier times.

Once a thriving stop on the tourist route up Australia's eastern seaboard, it still has plenty to occupy weary travellers, including a cafe, children's playground (featuring Bob the Builder digger), a lame attempt to commemorate the Eureka Rebellion and a cartoon mural of kangaroos telling you how many kilometres it is to Cairns, Perth, Tasmania or “Ayers Rock” (indicating how long it has been there).

Tucked away in a corner is a sign indicating why anybody might wish to stop here. “This way to Matilda” it announces. 

And through said doorway can be found the character who 36 years ago was the most well-known flirtatious marsupial on Earth.

After those Commonwealth Games, Matilda was dismantled and taken away from the public eye. Much the same could be said about Harris.

Eventually she was relocated to the Gold Coast's Wet ’n’ Wild theme park.

In full view of the many park patrons and passing motorists, for 20 years she was living out a retirement befitting such a pivotal figure in Australian culture.

However, when attempts by the Gold Coast City Council to relocate Matilda were thwarted by area height limits (apparently skyscrapers don't count), she was bought on her 27th birthday (September 30, 2009) by the highway servo which had also been established in 1982 and immediately changed its name to Matilda Fuel Supplies.

She was put on display from 2011 and, like an elderly relative dispatched to a home, all seemed happy.

However, upgrades to the Bruce Highway between Traveston and Woondum in August 2017 prompted concerns that the rest stop, and its famous resident, would slip into obscurity.

On the day we visited following the next Commonwealth Games on Queensland shores, the weather was as wet and wild as the theme park Matilda used to frequent.

We were the only visitors game enough to brave the rain to photograph her, the cafe wasn't exactly doing a roaring trade and in the actual servo there were more geese than patrons.

She may not attract quite as many admirers as in 1982, but Matilda is still going strong and looking pretty good for her age.

And how apt that she is now helping to keep a location on the map having once played a starring role in a ceremony which famously left another one off it.