You would think that the “Big Thing” phenomenon would be American through and through but curiously it seems very Australian. Originally built as tourist attractions or as advertising for a regional product they have become anachronistic and, frankly, a little tawdry. Amazingly there are over 145 big items in Australia, that is, 7 big things for every 1 million Australians. Quite bizarre isn’t it?
Stranger still, I have seen quite a few and after researching the topic a little further discovered I had seen a few more that I had never realised were “big”!
So, here is a list of my sightings; Cheese (Bodalla), Apple (Yerrinbool), Pavlova (Marulan), Banana (Coffs Harbour), Merino (Goulburn, of course, and in its present and old locations), Trout (Adaminiby), Pineapple (Gympie), Barramundi (Cairns), Bottles (Mangrove Mountain), Boot (really?) (Rozelle), Dinosaur (Diplodocus?) (Somersby), Prawn (Ballina), Shell (Tewantin), Mushroom (Belconnen) and, my favourite, the big potato at Robertson in the Southern Highlands.
For years I had driven past this monument to local agricultural business and thought it was a bus shelter or scout hut that the local town planner had allowed to be built because he or she had been having a very bad day , had been drinking or had a very special and peculiar sense of humour.
I had thought maybe it was a ‘big’ something but I was leaning toward the ‘big turd’ rather than potato. I wonder whether there is a ‘big turd’ somewhere in Australia? Perhaps on Pooh Corner at Dunedoo? The town exists. I made Pooh Corner up though it would be nice if the council did rename a street corner after Winnie, whose middle name is “the”….
The problem with the big ‘potato’ is that brown, stippled and moulded concrete creates a visual ambiguity and I am sure that I was not alone in my view. One thing I will say though is that I have never seen one speck of graffiti on this monument to carbohydrate goodness. At least Robertsonians have civic pride if dubious taste in public sculpture.
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