Big Things in A Big Country

Anyone who’s travelled a few hundred kilometres in Australia, probably has come across a BIG attraction. Passing a BIG Koala on the way to Horsham got me thinking. There’s the Big Pineapple, the Big Fish, the Big Banana, the Big Windmill, the Big Prawn, the Big Trout, the Big Oyster, the Big Merino, the Big Cherry, the Big Orange, the Big Cow and the Big Lawnmower. Please, let me know if you know of others.

I understand the need for a gimmick to lure punters into a souvenir shop, but I think this BIG thing runs deeper and is a by-product of our cultural cringe. We don’t want to be thought of as small and isolated – we want the biggest (if not the best). This is also evident in the boasts of having the ‘biggest whatsy in the Southern Hemisphere’: the tallest lighthouse, the longest wooden bridge, the largest glasshouse or whatever.