Once upon a time – WAAAAAAY back in the dim, distant world of 1989 – Ballina’s tail-less BIG Prawn sat atop the West Ballina transit centre and restaurant. Inside, visitors could climb up into its head and view a distorted world through the thick perspex of its concave eye. Over time, as businesses came and went below, the passive prawn’s exotic colouring faded from the original cooked-prawn red to pink, then finally a ghastly, ghostly white.

20 years later, after reports it was suffering from crustacean concrete cancer, the local council approved its demolition.

What were they thinking??

Yet, while some – especially those with good taste and refinement – see Australia’s notorious Big Things as trashy and tacky kitsch, for better or worse they’re a part of the Aussie culture.

Which should give non-Australians a disturbing idea of our national condition … but I digress!

To us Aussies, it’s quite normal to wander through a landscape awash with giant fibreglass and concrete objects that almost – but not quite – represent actual fruit, animals and people.

But to actually destroy one?

Our inbuilt nationalistic tendency to defend the underdog kicks in!

That’s possibly why nearby coastal town Yamba’s 2012 takeover bid was thwarted and the shrinking shrimp received a stay of execution demolition order!

Locals from Ballina, in Northern New South Wales and an hour’s drive south of the Queensland border, weren’t going to give up their placid prawn without a fight.

After all, watching the Prawn Trawlers head down the Richmond River, across the churning waters of its treacherous Bar and out through its mouth to sea for a night of fishing is one of the joys of walking Ballina’s twin breakwalls. It’s even more exciting watching the trawlers return to cross the bar through a mountainous swell in seas so heavy I’ll never to complain about the price of seafood again!

With Ballina’s inaugural Prawn festival date of November 2013 fast approaching, it somehow seems right for the Big Prawn Ballina to remain.

So when hardware giant Bunnings tapped into the community outrage with a masterful blend of goodwill, expedience and positive publicity by writing a new lease of life for the controversial crustacean into its development proposal for the site on which it stood, the shiftless shrimp’s future was assured.

And in a lucky break for the Big Thing loving public – and quite possibly Ballina’s international tourist industry – the Big Prawn Ballina has not only been preserved, but given a makeover.

Now, after being moved to it’s final resting spot, raised 3 metres so its brand-new tail would fit underneath, and repainted to a mouth-watering shade of cooked-crustacean salmon pink, the Big Prawn is BACK!

And although the finishing touches were still being applied on this rare rain-free Northern Rivers afternoon, the pulchritudinous prawn looks better than ever!

Want MORE?

• Ballina, New South Wales
• Northern Rivers Region, New South Wales
• More Aussie BIG Things
• See MY PHOTO in the Little Aussie Book of BIG Aussie Icons!

The post The Controversial Crustacean! Big Prawn Ballina, New South Wales appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Living in a landscape populated with giant fibreglass representations of fruit and animals is quite normal to many Aussies.

Irrespective of whether or not such objects are in good taste!

Commemorating criminals by building statues and devoting whole tourism campaigns to the bushrangers who dominated the early days of colonialism is also an intrinsic part of Aussie-dom.

The Kelly Gang’s only foray across the border was to Jerilderie, commemorated with stylish sculpture ‘Bread Tin Ned’ at the local bakery (how do you think I found it?). This resulted in the famous ‘Jerilderie Letter’ he wrote to defend his gang’s actions in the notorious Stringybark Creek shoot-out a few months earlier.

Today, to be considered ‘as game as Ned Kelly’ – roughly translating as brave, determined and enterprising – is high praise for an Australian.  Even though it’s a little ironic.

His last words – ‘Such is Life’ – are part of Aussie folklore, and lingo.

Perhaps the first true Aussie larrikin, it may be why he’s the subject of many books, films, poems, songs and art. And also why his distinctive home-made body armour is instantly recognisable.

• Ned Kelly
• Glenrowan, Victoria
• Australia’s Bushrangers

The post The Next BIG Thing! Glenrowan, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The 4000 km drive from east to west is such a LOOOONG way even getting halfway across Australia is an achievement.

Kimba, South Australia

The small town of Kimba, deep in the South Australian Outback on the Eyre Peninsula, leaves cross country travellers in no doubt that they’ve reached halfway mark. If you don’t feel a photo coming on when you reach the ‘Halfway across Australia’ sign, you’ve got WAY more willpower than I!

And depending on which way you’re travelling, just up (or down) the road is the ‘Halfway Across Australia Tourist Gift Shop and Bakery’! Even the most jaded traveller would be tempted to stop here, wouldn’t they?

The Big Galah

Because you can’t miss the Big Galah!

The eight metre*** high statue of this iconic Australian bird outside the gift shop is what’s known in tourism lingo as a ‘sure thing’. By the time you get to Kimba from any direction, chances are you’ve already driven through a whole lot of nothing – with a whole lot more to come!

So the Big Galah**** and the other tourist drawcards awaiting you will likely be an irresistable lure – for the photo opportunities alone!

Where is the REAL Halfway Point?

But is Kimba REALLY halfway across Australia?

It is – at least according to the Half Way sign, the Eyre Peninsula tourist guide and several websites promoting the town and region.  All of these conveniently fail to provide any distances to support their claims. Although the website indicates the measurement to be ‘as the crow flies’**

According to Google Maps the distance from Perth to Sydney is 3934 km by road. It calculates the shortest road distance from Sydney to Kimba at ~1700 km, and from Kimba to Perth ~2230 km. Even taking the longest possible route from Sydney via Melbourne brings the Sydney-Kimba leg to only ~1900 km – still less than half, especially as the distance to Perth then also becomes greater than 4000km.

And while measuring ‘as the crow flies’ would decrease the Kimba-Perth leg, it would also decrease the Kimba-Sydney leg.

Perhaps Kimba is the CLOSEST town to the magic 1977 km half way mark? No.  Other towns of varying sizes between Kimba and the Nullarbor, such as Ceduna, Wirrulla and Poochera would have greater claim to half way honours if it’s a matter of road distance.

So why Kimba? Maybe Kimba just thought of it first. Then travellers, grateful for something to break their long journey don’t question the sign’s authenticity.  OR the inexplicable presence of a Big Galah!

And unless you’re travelling from Sydney to Kimba and back again, you’ll pass the halfway point somewhere down the road anyway.

So lets keep this a secret, shall we?!?!

Want more information?

• The Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus)
• Kimba, South Australia
• Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
• Australian Travel Distances

The post Halfway Across Australia! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The insatiable curiosity that leads me off the main road to explore an interesting sounding place or rumoured oddity isn’t always rewarded.

But in the tiny town of Patchewollock, deep in the Victorian Mallee and just off the Hopetoun/Walpeup road, I hit paydirt.

Big time!

Unmarked on any tourist literature (that I’d seen) Patchewollock hosts one of the most bizarre Australian Big Thing I’ve ever seen.

So far, anyway.

The Big Malleefowl, constructed almost entirely from painted corrugated iron, is perched near the restored railway station and goods shed, classified by the National Trust. Thanks to the decades of relentless country Australia de-railing by successive governments, the trains no longer run.

And neither does the Big Malleefowl. A little unsteady on its feet, the orange netting around its claws stops people adults children from attempting to climb it.

The heartland of the vulnerable Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) is unsurprisingly the Mallee country and nearby Wyperfeld National Park is a known habitat. This notoriously shy bird incubates its eggs on the ground in a large mound of earth and leaves, so is therefore under threat from both bushfires and foxes, despite it’s protective colouration that acts as camouflage.

Or perhaps the Big Malleefowl was designed to echo its megafauna ancestor, Progura naracoortensis …

Whether its unknown maker/s intended it to be male or female is uncertain. And with no distinguishing characteristics between them, I’ll wait for an expert chicken sexer to make a determination!

But whatever its gender, I suspect Outback Patchewollock has scored itself an exclusive. While Malleefowl are found in other areas of Australia, I’d be amazed to find that anyone else had the foresight and vision to actually make a Big One!

And because it’s an Australian endemic, I’m betting you won’t see a Big Malleefowl anywhere else in the world!

Now THAT’S worth visiting Patchewollock for!!

Want more information?

• Patchewollock, Victoria
• Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)
• Victorian Mallee
• Wyperfeld National Park

The post Only in OZ #22 – The Big Malleefowl, Patchewollock, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The huge fish levitating planking looming above the cars parked opposite the Swan Hill Visitor Information Centre ALMOST made up for Pilchard’s refusal to take a detour via the tiny town of Tittybong. Just so I could say I’d been there …

But the thrill of ALMOST visiting Tittybong dissipated as I sniffed out a story here on the Victorian side of the River Murray, which forms the state boundary with New South Wales.

Swan Hill’s giant Murray Cod ‘Arnold’ was saved from oblivion by its community who fibreglassed the steel and timber behemoth and slapped it (him?) up on the banks of the river as a tourist attraction. And they were right to do so – ‘Arnold’ is now far better known as a stalwart of the Swan Hill streetscape than for his short lived movie career. Say what? Yes, he was constructed in 1991 as a prop for Australian movie production Eight Ball.

No, I’ve not seen Eight Ball either. I’d never even heard of it until our April 2012 visit to Swan Hill! It’s apparently about two men who meet on a construction site for a preposterous tourist attraction – yes, a giant Murray Cod – on the banks of the Murray River near Swan Hill!!

At least It makes a change from swarms of bees, creatures from black lagoons and killer tomatoes …

So is Arnold’s reincarnation life imitating art? Or vice versa??

At 15 metres (~47 ft), Arnold dwarfs Jaws, a tiddler at only 8 metres (25 ft)! But giant Murray Cod aren’t just the stuff of B grade movies – the largest real one ever recorded was over 1.8 metres (6 ft) long and weighed 113 kg (250 lb)!

Whether inadvertently or not, Arnold’s size echoes the Aboriginal Murray River creation legend – a giant Murray cod chased down a small stream widens the river bed to assist its escape, it’s thrashing tail creating the river bends that the more prosaic attribute to weathering, floodwaters and time …

But will re-stocking programs, catch-and-release strategies, upper and lower size restrictions, and bag limits be enough to reverse the decline of this iconic Australian fish?

Once common throughout the Murray-Darling river system, the Murray Cod is now ‘vulnerable’, since European settlement a victim to unregulated overfishing, river de-snagging, decline of water quality and competitive introduced species such as European carp.

A youngster at only 21, Arnold has 27 years to go before he matches the age of the oldest recorded Murray Cod. And even further to go before 2061 when he’ll reach 70 – the estimated age of the monster fish of yesteryear!

I hope he’s not the last of his kind by then …

The post Only in OZ #21 – Big Murray Cod, Swan Hill, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The Big Woolbales, Hamilton, Victoria

Although physical evidence sometimes suggests the contrary, not every iconic object in OZ has been turned into a Big Thing!

That’s just as well. 
What kind of nightmares would a Big Politician evoke? And the disturbing mental image of the Big Potato – well, let’s just say that was a narrow escape!!

Although a Big Politician AND a Big Potato together? Now you’re talking!! But I digress …
Not every object is improved by extreme enlargement either. Cuddling up to Dadswells Bridge’s grotesque Big Koala, for example, isn’t quite the same as smooching its cutesy and photogenic real life counterpart. 



Big Koala, Dadswells Bridge

And some Big Things are just plain silly! Like Atherton Tableland’s Big Peanut – WAAAAAY bigger than a real peanut, but still only a metre or so long! Sadly (!), I have no photo, as we couldn’t find it last time we looked …

But some are just so bizarre, they work! Take Tully’s Golden Gumboot, for example – it’s even got its own festival now! 
And I’ll bet I’m not the only one to feel tiny for the first time in my life on Broken Hill’s Big ParkBench.


Big Park Bench, Broken Hill

BUT … which category do Hamilton’s Big Woolbales fall into??

Designed to commemorate the region’s reliance on wool – it’s one of the best merino growing districts in the country – the Big Woolbales contain a cafe, Shearing Museum and shearing supplies and clothing.



Golden Gumboot, Tully

Itching to capture my virgin viewing of this Hamilton icon on camera, I asked the service station attendant exactly where they were.
’Down the road and on your right, luv,’ she stated, waving a hand in the general direction we were travelling. ‘Can’t miss ’em, they’re HUGE!’

Well, guess what.
Yep – we missed them. Huge for wool-bales, yes! BUT … 5 BIG Woolbales – a similar shape and size to a pueblo-style suburban house – just didn’t stand out that much amidst the Redgums that surround them.  Strangely, they’re not featured on the Australian Big Things website so maybe, just maybe the site compilers couldn’t find them either!! 

BUT … at least I’ve had an experience not shared by many others …



Past times at the Big Woolbales!

So which category do the Big Wool Bales fall in to?
You tell me!!

Want more information?

• Big Woolbales
• Hamilton, Victoria
• Australian Big Things

The post Only in OZ #18 – Big Woolbales, Hamilton, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

With so many ‘Jumping Croc’ tours, I don’t recall the name of this one – well, it WAS almost 3 years ago – but their popularity underlines our fascination with this prehistoric predator. Although the ethics of pimping them to tourists in return for an easy feed is debatable …

Not so ‘Krys’, the Big Crocodile at Normanton, Queensland. Yes, this whopper – bigger than JAWS at 8.63 metres long (28′ 4″) – is often mistaken for one of Australia’s notorious Big Things. But unlike other big things that are several times bigger than their real life counterparts, Krys is actually a life size replica of the largest crocodile ever ‘taken’ in the world.

No, that’s NOT a tyre in the water …

And something tells me a hungry crocodile won’t give a damn what you’re wearing!

The post Aussie ABC – C is for Crocodile! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Kenniff Monument, Mitchell QLD

What do Aussies call a person who a) makes a living from criminal activity; b) is on the run from the law; c) is likely armed and dangerous; d) lives outside mainstream society; and e) has probably killed – most likely police officers?





‘Waltzing Matilda’ – the scene by the billabong

Bushrangers Cave, Cania Gorge QLD







Rock Formations, Mt Moffatt

Marlong Arch, Mt Moffatt National Park



Mt Moffatt National Park

Unless a present-day bushranger wants notoriety (in which case s/he is likely to have a Facebook page) you probably won’t know if you’ve encountered one! How much further would the old-time bushrangers have got with the benefits of technology?!





The post Aussie ABC – B is for Bushranger! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Big Winch, Coober Pedy, South Australia

Like a giant sword of Damocles, Coober Pedy’s Big Winch looms over the head of a hapless tourist. Well … actually, it’s Pilchard, sacrificing himself for the photgraphic greater good – so you can see just how big the ‘Big Winch’ actually is! Luckily for him, the perspective is an optical illusion – and he’s in no danger at all.

The Big Winch clearly supports Coober Pedy’s claim as ‘Opal Capital of the World’ – its presence would immediately overwhelm any pretenders to the title!!

This remote frontier mining town, just ‘up the road’ from the Woomera turnoff, deep in the South Australian outback, has much of its accommodation underground to beat the heat – an odd experience we just had to have on our first visit (2004, when these photos were taken).

Great for the non-claustrophobic – the absence of windows can be disconcerting – we awoke in the dead blackness of night to a pinging sound from the air vent above. A sandstorm? Metal contracting in the cold night air?? Friday-night-post-pub night revellers flicking gravel at the vent (as one does)??? No, it was raining!  Yes, RAINING!!  Arid? Desert?? Yeah … right!

Underground at Coober Pedy, South Australia

The paranoid may reflect on the ease with which terrorists could use the vents to decimate the town with poison gas, but can probably rest assured that Coober Pedy isn’t a strategic or politically viable target.  Unless there’s something I don’t know …

Who’d destroy a town with such a unique landmark, anyway? Loud and proud about its heritage, the ‘Big Winch’ at the Visitor Information Centre leaves the tourist in no doubt as to the town’s main industry. Nor does the moonscape of mullock heaps stretching to infinity over the horizon – the visitor’s heap is said to yield treasures the miners have missed …

Getting lucky at Coober Pedy

Although it’s my sad duty to tell you that the experience of finding a valuable gem on a tourist mullock heap CAN be faked!
 

That’s what’ll keep you coming back!!

The post Only in OZ #11 – The Big Winch, Coober Pedy, South Australia appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Well, now that Oprah-mania has died down we’re left with images of the Uluru sunset thing, the Opera House mega-thon and the koala hugging!

But I bet she didn’t hug THIS koala!

Dadswells Bridge has the dubious honour (conferred by moi) of having one of the most grotesque and unashamedly unattractive ‘attractions’ I’ve encountered in Australia.  Conversely, however, that in itself makes it a FAAAAABULOUS ‘must see’!!
This photo was taken by Pilchard MANY years ago – while I was smaller then, I’d still pale into insignifigance next to this monolith even if I’d grown twice as big (which I haven’t)!  But maybe it proves you can’t see a koala without wanting to hug it?

Or maybe not.  BUT … like the Big Park Bench, it’s nice to find something that makes one feel small!

In Victoria’s wonderful Grampians region, the Big Koala of Dadswells Bridge guarantees a steady stream of visitors – and over the years it’s variously contained a small business (see above – how cool would that be?!), souvenir shop or been closed.  There’s even accomodation in case you want to view it by night – or check out the other attractions of Dadswells Bridge and region.  After all, why hug a real koala when this far superior experience is in the offing?!

Oprah doesn’t know what she’s missed!!

PS … Since this post, Sam the Big Koala’s had a face lift!  Or at least a cool make-up job!  There’s even some REAL koalas in the zoo nearby!  Don’t miss it!!

Want MORE?

• The Big Koala
• Dadswells Bridge
• The Grampians, Victoria
• MORE Aussie BIG Things!

The post Only in OZ #9 – Big Koala, Dadswells Bridge, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.