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From the Big Bogan to Larry the Lobster, why do towns build Big Things?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-clarke-248726">Amy Clarke</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-sunshine-coast-1068">University of the Sunshine Coast</a></em></p> <p>Big Things first appeared in Australia in the 1960s, beginning with the <a href="https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/things/big-scotsman/">Big Scotsman</a> (1962) in Medindie, South Australia, the <a href="https://bigbanana.com">Big Banana</a> (1964) in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, and the <a href="https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/country-nsw/the-murray/tocumwal/attractions/big-murray-cod">Big Murray Cod</a> (1968) in Tocumwal, NSW.</p> <p>These structures were inspired by earlier North American examples, such as <a href="https://lucytheelephant.org">Lucy the Elephant</a> (1882) in New Jersey, and several <a href="https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/randys-donuts/">big doughnuts in California</a>.</p> <p>While they differed in subject matter, all aimed to attract the attention of passing motorists: in the 1950s–1960s, private car ownership had soared and highway construction spread.</p> <p>Towns and regions across Australia, <a href="https://ourwayoflife.co.nz/11-iconic-big-thing-statues-around-new-zealand/">New Zealand</a> and North America used oversized landmarks to get travellers to stop, take a photo and hopefully spend money at local businesses.</p> <p>As awareness of these giant landmarks grew, so did the desire of other communities to have their own.</p> <p>Within a few decades, Australia’s Big Things had become a beloved fixture of road trips and summer holidays.</p> <h2>A big cultural impact</h2> <p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2022.2144928">My research</a> shows the number of Big Things being constructed in Australia hit an initial peak in the 1980s before experiencing a temporary decline.</p> <p>By the 2000s, however, towns as far afield as Tully in Queensland (<a href="https://www.australiantraveller.com/qld/big-gumboot/">Big Golden Gumboot</a>), Cressy in Tasmania (<a href="https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/cressy-tas">Big Trout</a>), and Exmouth in Western Australia (<a href="https://www.exmouth.wa.gov.au/news/exmouths-iconic-and-much-loved-crustacean-is-back/358">Big Prawn</a>) were reviving the tradition.</p> <p>Soon, Big Things became firmly entrenched in Australian popular culture: featuring on limited edition <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/sunshine-coast/redheads-pay-homage-to-icons/news-story/219026f222830073f4db107759e1145c">Redheads matchboxes</a> (2010), and on sets of <a href="https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/stamp-issues/aussie-big-things">Australia Post stamps </a>(2007 and 2023).</p> <p>But some of the older structures experienced declining popularity: the Big Wool Bales in Hamilton, Victoria (closed 2020), Victoria’s Giant Gippsland Earth Worm in Bass (closed 2020) and the Big Cask Wine in Mourquong, NSW (closed 2012), survive only in holiday photos and people’s memories.</p> <p>Icons like Larry the Lobster (Kingston, SA), the Big Prawn (Ballina, NSW), and the Big Pineapple (Nambour, Queensland) have battled <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/world/australia/larry-lobster-big-things-sale.html">changes in ownership</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-24/council-votes-to-sink-big-prawn/1441452">threat of demolition</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/24/big-pineapple-reopen-queensland-woombye-history">closure</a>.</p> <p>Despite these challenges, and debates over heritage conservation, construction of these giant landmarks has not slowed.</p> <p><a href="https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/outback-nsw/cobar-area/nyngan/attractions/big-bogan">The Big Bogan</a> was erected in 2015 in Nyngan, NSW, by community members who were eager to encourage visitors to the area.</p> <p>A local progress association in the small town of Thallon in Queensland unveiled William the <a href="https://www.stgeorgeregion.com.au/listing/william-the-wombat/">Big Wombat</a> in 2018, also with the aim to bring attention to the area.</p> <p>Similar hopes were held for the <a href="https://www.queensland.com/au/en/things-to-do/attractions/p-5f72991d4390bc7c02ab8547-the-big-melon">Big Watermelon</a> erected in 2018 (Chinchilla, Queensland), and the Big Tractor (Carnamah, WA) <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-05/midwest-wa-town-carnamah-unveils-worlds-biggest-tractor/104388496">which opened this year</a>.</p> <p>Through my research, I spoke with many people involved with projects such as these, and they said they’d selected objects that were iconic to their area.</p> <p>This could be a product they specialise in, a local native animal, or, in the case of the Big Bogan, a joke based on the name of nearby Bogan River.</p> <p>Most builders openly acknowledge their primary motivation is to promote the region, attract tourist dollars and investment, and revive towns that have seen better days.</p> <p>But do Big Things actually achieve these goals? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.</p> <h2>An economic return?</h2> <p>Local economies are complex, as are the reasons people choose to visit. Many Big Things are constructed on the sides of highways that connect Australia’s numerous regional towns.</p> <p>People who stop for photos may not set out with the goal of visiting that Big Thing – it may simply be convenient to take a break there while on the way somewhere else.</p> <p>And if people do stop, it doesn’t guarantee they will spend more than the cost of filling up their car with petrol, if that.</p> <p>Over the years, tourism researchers have developed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1447677021000322">several different models </a>for calculating the impact of rural and regional tourism on local economies.</p> <p>However, none of these approaches has proven to be universally effective. Most scholars agree tourists aren’t likely to travel long distances <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21568316.2019.1673811">for any one reason</a>.</p> <p>They will consider a range of factors including food and accommodation, and the closeness of numerous attractions. In other words: building a Big Thing won’t guarantee a sustained increase in tourism to the area on its own.</p> <p>Communities should factor this in when considering erection of a Big Thing, especially given the cost of construction.</p> <p>The Big Mango in Bowen <a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-big-mango">reportedly cost $A90,000</a> when it was built in 2002, while the organisers of the Big Tractor in Carnamah <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-05/midwest-wa-town-carnamah-unveils-worlds-biggest-tractor/104388496">raised more than $600,000</a> to cover its price tag.</p> <p>The spread of social media and easy access to media outlets via the internet offers communities another reason to build Big Things, however.</p> <p>Australians are not the only ones fascinated by Big Things, and when a new one is unveiled — or an existing one goes “missing”, as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-26324023">the Big Mango did in 2014</a> — it is often covered by the press and then shared online.</p> <p>These giant landmarks are also highly “Instagrammable”: <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3039474/The-20-hottest-Australian-attractions-Instagram-revealed-spectacular-Sydney-Opera-House-Twelve-Apostles-don-t-forget-Big-Banana.html">a 2015 survey</a> revealed that six of Australia’s 20 most Instagrammed tourist attractions were Big Things.</p> <p>This sort of coverage doesn’t necessarily guarantee the long-term revival of a town’s economy.</p> <p>But it can help to remind people of the town’s existence, and it gives locals a memorable image on which to build.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/241129/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-clarke-248726">Amy Clarke</a>, Senior Lecturer in History, specialising in built heritage and material culture, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-sunshine-coast-1068">University of the Sunshine Coast</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-big-bogan-to-larry-the-lobster-why-do-towns-build-big-things-241129">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Domestic Travel

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Meet the woman who’s been trapping lobsters since before World War II

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Virginia Oliver, 101-year-old resident of Rockland, Maine, started trapping lobsters when she was just 8 years old, right before the Great Depression hit, and she’s been going ever since. She’s been a trailblazer her entire life: when she started, few women were trapping lobsters, and now she’s the oldest lobster fisher in the coastal northeastern state best known for its lobsters, and most likely one of the oldest lobster fishers in the world.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She tends to her traps with her 78-year-old son Max, having learned about the business from her father, a lobster dealer. Lobsters, which used to be considered a cheap food primarily eaten by working class families, fetched 28 cents/pound when she started trapping; now, having become a delicacy, they fetch 15 times that. Perhaps most surprisingly, she isn’t sick of eating lobster yet – she enjoys a lobster dinner of her own roughly once a week. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img style="width: 500px; height: 332.79220779220776px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844167/gettyimages-1234361930.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/99b6ddc285094a56b437a724f25c8637" /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oliver catches lobsters by loading small fish called menhaden, or ‘pogeys’ in lobster-speak, into wire traps, and drives a boat that once belonged to her late husband that bears her name, ‘Virginia’. She said she has no intention of stopping, but she is concerned about the health of Maine’s lobster population, which is subject to heavy fishing pressure.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of her decision to continue working, Oliver said, “I’ve done it all my life, so I might as well keep doing it.” Even after a scare where a crab snipped her finger, requiring seven stitches, she never considered retirement. According to family friend Wayne Gray, the doctor admonished her, asking, “Why are you out there lobstering?” with Oliver responding with a simple, “Because I want to.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I like doing it, I like being along the water. And I’m going to keep on doing it just as long as I can.”</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Images: Joseph Prezioso/AFP</span></em></p>

Retirement Life

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Coles drops price on Christmas delicacy

<p>Coles is selling lobster for half price this Christmas after buying excess to help out fishermen who had their stock rejected by China.</p> <p>The supermarket giant is selling its Western Australian Rock Lobsters for just $20 - matching the price at Woolworths - which will be available in the deli section of its stores nationwide.</p> <p>Coles purchased 29 times the amount of lobsters it did last year, in what Coles General Manager for Bakery, Deli and Seafood Andy Mossop said was a win for the industry and consumers.</p> <p>He said the company was preparing for its busiest week of the year for seafood sales, with customers purchasing over 70 per cent more in December compared to other months.</p> <p>“Coles is committed to supporting local producers and providing great value for customers,” Mr Mossop said.</p> <p>“This is a fantastic example of how we have been able to act quickly to support our suppliers with an income stream during a very challenging time while also benefiting our customers at the checkout.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7839207/shutterstock_795373393-1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/7b9d8ad50a4e4510bcbe77819e7603d0" /></p> <p>”We are delighted to be able to offer premium quality and sustainable Australian seafood, like WA Rock Lobsters, at exceptional prices and help customers enjoy a luxury Christmas staple for less this year.”</p> <p>Woolworths also made an announcement saying they will drop the price of lobsters to $20.</p> <p>Western Rock Lobster Council CEO Matt Taylor said the market closures in China meant there was an increased supply of the “premium” product for domestic markets.</p> <p>“Partnering with national retailers to boost local consumption will play an important role in the viability of fishing businesses and their regional communities,” he said.</p> <p>Marine Stewardship Council Program Director of Oceania Anne Gabriel said Coles has helped out WA fishing companies immensely this Christmas.</p> <p>“With a third of global fish populations overfished, choosing sustainable seafood with the blue fish tick supports livelihoods, communities and helps protect one of the last major food sources truly from the wild,” she said.</p> <p>“When you see the MSC blue fish tick label on Aussie lobster at your local Coles deli counter, you can feel good that your purchase is not only good for your pocket, but for the ocean and those that depend on it too.”</p>

Food & Wine

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Airport security find giant lobster in checked luggage

<p>Airport security working at Boston’s Logan International Airport in the US have spotted a nine-kilogram lobster in a passenger’s luggage during a security check.</p> <p>The photograph, taken by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), reveals one of the airport staff showing the immense size of the live crustacean.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/TSA">@TSA</a> officers are skilled at screening all sorts of items in checked baggage...including this 20+ pound lobster at <a href="https://twitter.com/BostonLogan">@BostonLogan</a> <a href="https://t.co/euhyyO6F7V">pic.twitter.com/euhyyO6F7V</a></p> — Michael McCarthy (@TSAmedia_MikeM) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSAmedia_MikeM/status/879331108609036289">June 26, 2017</a></blockquote> <p>Interestingly though, the transport of the lobster was completely by the book.</p> <p>TSA spokesman Michael McCarthy told Reuters the TSA doesn’t prohibit people transporting live lobsters, provided they are in a “clear, plastic, spill-proof container.”</p> <p>The lobster in question was in a water cooler, and according to McCarthy, “cooperated quite nicely with the screening process.”</p> <p>At least they didn’t try to bring it in their carry-on luggage! </p>

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