Around the World in 80 Days: Big and Bizarre Down Under

Given that the first European settlers arrived in Australia in 1788 an that the oldest still standing building on the continent merely dates back to 1824, Europeans, who can proudly look back on several thousand years of history, might naturally be a bit sceptic about Australia. When I first arrived in Australia, I probably shared that feeling.

Darling Harbour, Sydney

Yes, Sydney was a nice city, the opera house iconic, the beaches lovely and the weather beautiful. But I couldn't help but feel that everything was a bit sterile, that cities has been planned rather than developed; like officials and not people had chosen where the new hip areas... So I spent my first days in Sydney underwhelmed and thinking that my gut feel about Australia had been right.

  

But after a couple of days I flew to the Gold Coast to meet my friend Steve and soon realised that I was mistaken.

Steve, a.k.a. the best tour guide in the world, had planned an awesome trip mixing tourist attractions and local favourites. When I asked him what we would do the next day, he said:

Byron Bay

With Firemen Steve

"So I thought we could go to the beach, do the headland walk, grab some lunch. Oh, and then we have to go check out the Big Banana and..."

 

I had found myself happily nodding along, but was completely caught off guard by the last thing to do "Excuse me, see what? A Big Banana???"

Yes, the Big Banana. And yes again, it is exactly what the name suggests: a Big Banana.

Steve told me that many cities in Australia had a self-chosen heritage-listed (!) symbol for their town and Coffs Harbour had the Big Banana. And in fact, the Banana was well signposted and we even had to queue to get the photo Steve insisted we take...

A couple of days later I was browsing through a bookshop and came across a book of "The 50 Great Australian Symbols" with a photo of the Big Banana on the front. Inside, 50 cities were proudly showcasing their landmarks and explaining the history of anything from the Big Cheese to the Big Macadamia Nut; from the Big Axe, to the Big Mower to the Big Tap; from the Giant Prawn, to the Big Red Elephant, to the Big Happy Hens to the Big Dead Fish; and from the Big Beer Can, to the Big Wine Bottle, to the Big Rum Bottle, to the Big Wine Cask to the Big Joint...

This got me wondering: Who came up with the idea of having a Big Something as a landmark for their town? And why did they not get ridiculed by other cities but imitated with a Big Miner’s Lamp and a Big Mosquito?

But as I was thinking about it, I started to realise that it actually made a lot of sense. In the absence of history and culture dating back to Roman times, why not come up with modern 'landmarks' for people to go see? Instead of the Colosseum, why not pose in front of a Big Potatoe? Instead of showing your friends photos of you in front of Westminster, why not show them one of you fighting the Big Boxing Crocodile? And why not make the kids stand in front of the Big Slurpee instead of the Eiffel Tower?

Makes perfect sense to me...