Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Biggin' it up

It is inevitable that any road trip in Australia will eventually lead you towards a ‘big thing’. This tends to be some giant fibreglass object beside a highway which has some tenuous link with the local area, such as the Big Merino in Goulburn near Canberra.

One of the most famous is the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, and I was pleased to stop here and be able to walk through the banana itself. There is also an incredible range of banana related merchandise, though curiously no plain and simple bananas.



The fruit theme continues up the coast, with the Big Pineapple in the Sunshine Coast. As you can see, it is a very popular place with a parking spot hard to find!





Now of course, being the country music capital, Tamworth wouldn’t miss out on an opportunity to celebrate all things tacky and has its very own big golden guitar, which also houses a wax museum of ‘famous’ Australian country music stars.


Sometimes, just sometimes, you stumble upon a big thing you never knew existed. Such as in Singleton,


which claims to have the World’s biggest sundial. Frankly, I don’t believe them and reckon Plymouth could be challenging Singleton’s claim. But then, there’s not a lot else in Singleton so maybe we should leave them be.


I also passed the Big Avocado on my way back south but couldn’t find the big prawn in Ballina. I guess maybe it just wasn’t big enough.

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