FROM the Big Banana to the Big Bogan and just about everything in between, we like to pay homage to our icons by erecting larger-than-life monuments of them.
To honour of our newest big thing, Chinchilla's Big Melon, we’ve put together the Bloody Big Road Trip.
Spanning thousands of kilometres and taking in some of the biggest things dotted around our sunburnt country, the Bloody Big Road Trip is not for the faint hearted. Quick tip – you’ll need a lot of petrol.
Roughly four hours drive north-west of Brisbane you’ll find the nation’s melon capital Chinchilla, which at once point produced 25 per cent of the country’s melons. Chinchilla is also home to the Big Melon after it won travel site Wotif’s Next Big Thing competition in November.
Standing almost nine metres wide, more than three metres tall and weighing four tonnes, we have a sneaking suspicion it may be a major part of February's MelonFest, which draws more than 15,000 people to the town every two years for the world’s biggest melon festival.
Continuing the fruity theme, its off to Nambour, home to the Big Pineapple. This Sunshine Coast icon stands 16 metres tall. You can easily spend a whole day here. Not only can you take a train ride around the site, but you can also meet the furry friends at the zoo or traverse through the trees at the TreeTop Challenge high ropes and zipline course, set to open soon. The Big Pineapple also hosts regular musical acts, with Tash Sultana due to perform on January 12.
Queensland claims one-third of Australia’s big things and there are plenty of things to see – Bowen’s Big Mango, the Big Cassowary in Mission Beach and the Big Barramundi in the Daintree, just to name a few.
Next, we head to Western Australia (make sure to take a pit-stop at the United Petrol Station in Humpty Doo, Northern Territory to see the big, eight-metre tall Boxing Crocodile). Despite being a big state, Western Australia doesn’t seem to boast many big landmarks – though special mention to Perth’s Kings Park, which at 400 plus hectares, is pretty big in its own right.
But Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields claims to be the home of the world’s tallest bin. While it hasn’t been verified, the bin is fairly impressive, measuring around eight metres tall. It was erected for the 1980 Tidy Towns competition.
Onward to South Australia, we’ll find Larry the Big Lobster in Kingston SE on the Limestone Coast. The 17-metre fibreglass crustacean was almost lost last year after he was put on the market, but luckily, a local pastoralist stepped in at the 11th hour and made a bid.
In Victoria, you’ll find not one but two Big Ned Kellys. The first is in Glenrowan, best known as where Ned and the gang had their final siege. You can also spot Big Ned in Ballarat, next to the Big Miner.
Board the ferry and pop over to Tassie to see the Big Penguin, conveniently located in Penguin, before heading back to the mainland and taking a quick snap of the Big Owl in Belconnen, ACT.
On the home straight in NSW, head west to Broken Hill, home to the big bench. Overlooking some of the area’s mines, the bench is two and a half times bigger than a regular bench.
Head east to pass the Big Beer Can in Cobar and the Big Bogan in Nyngan, before heading north to Tamworth’s Big Guitar.
Our roadtrip finishes at Coff’s Harbour's Big Banana, where we can enjoy a banana split.
Phew – that was a bloody big whirlwind.
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