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From the big prawn to the big banana, Australia’s small towns certainly know how to put themselves on the map.
Stopping to take photos of quirky big things by the roadside is almost a rite of passage on any road trip across the country’s vast landscape.
And while these eye-catching monuments may vary in their wow factor, they add a novelty for visitors who are lured to stop, explore the town and spend up at local businesses.
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The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, Australia. Picture: Getty
Propertyology managing director Simon Pressley has studied in detail 68 townships making big impressions with their big statues and found that price points, investment opportunities and lifestyles offerings vary widely.
In the small South Australian town of Kimba – home to the Big Galah – the median house value is $130,000, the lowest of the 68 townships studied.
The galah is a bright and cheery distraction on the Eyre Highway of the wheat town, at the halfway point between Sydney and Perth. Standing resplendent at eight metres tall, it was erected in 1993 by a local concreting family keen to lure travellers to shop at their gem store just behind.
Kimba’s Big Galah stands at 8 metres high in front of a souvenir shop on the Eyre Highway. Picture: Kimba District Council
“It certainly is an attraction, there’s no doubt about that,” local agent Phil Arcus, from Phil Arcus Real Estate Kimba told realestate.com.au.
“Kimba people love it because it brings tourists and makes them stop. It’s on the main drag but if it was in our town on our main street it’d probably be better again.”
Broken Hill in NSW is home to a Big Bench. At Eucla, a coastal town on the West Australian and South Australian border, you’ll find the Big Whale. Both towns have median house values of $190,000.
At the premium end of the small-town-with-big-things market, you can take a selfie with the Big Pelican in swanky Noosa, the popular Queensland seaside town with a population of 56,000 and median house value of $1.65 million according to PropTrack.
Affectionately called ‘Pelican Pete’ by locals, Noosa’s Big Pelican was originally created as a float in 1977. Picture: Noosa Libraries
But the most surprising find, Mr Pressley said, is at Pokolbin, a tiny town in the heart of the Hunter Valley wineries. Here you’ll find the Big Wine Bottle at the sprawling Hunter Valley Gardens, a mix of restaurants and shops set amid rolling fields.
Despite being a town of only 1,000 people, the median house value here is $1.6 million.
“The average annual capital growth of 9.2% is better than seven out of eight capital cities over the last 20 years,” Mr Pressley pointed out.
“There wouldn’t be too many people that’d say it’s possible with a community with just 1000 population.”
But the Big Wine Bottle isn’t really on the radar of local real estate agents.
“It’s our best kept secret, we need to promote it more,” joked local agent Cain Beckett of Jurds Real Estate Cessnock, who thought the landmark was more moderately sized, than big.
Mr Beckett said the bottle is located in what is considered the centre of the valley.
“In lieu of a town centre, we’ve got a big bottle of wine in the middle of Hunter Valley Gardens. The population is sparse so there’s not many people but the properties are very valuable. It’s pretty expensive real estate.”
Pokolbin’s Big Wine Bottle pays homage to the region’s renowned wineries. Picture: realestate.com.au
Propertyology’s Mr Pressley found 25 of the 68 locations he studied had an average annual capital growth rate over the last 20 years of at least 7% – beating Sydney, 5.7%, and Melbourne, 5.9%.
And 16 of the townships enjoyed rental yields of at least 6%.
But when it comes to whether there is any correlation between property prices and small towns boasting big things, Mr Pressley is blunt: “Zero,” he said.
The townships who have invested in this novelty architecture do share a common link, though, in how they pay homage to their heritage or industries, he explained.
Ballina’s Big Prawn stands 9 metres high and weighs 35 tonne. Picture: Getty
For example, the Big Milkshake in Warrnambool on Victoria’s south west coast is a nod to the local dairy industry, while the Big Bullock at Rockhampton is a symbol of its claim as Australia’s beef capital.
“Obviously, they’ve created these monuments at different times and some of them might be well over 100 years old,” Mr Pressley said.
“It’s marketing and usually the common theme of the monuments is something the community is renowned for.
“A lot of these non-capital city locations are Australia’s food bowls. They don’t grow everything, but specialise in growing potatoes or wine or whatever and they piggyback off that.
“It says a lot to someone visiting, particularly for the first time, to learn about the town without jumping onto Wikipedia.”
The hollow 10-metre-long ‘Big Potato’ in Robertson sold to an investor in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. Source: Celcom / Creative Commons
Love them or loathe them, these larger than life drawcards help put a small town on the map, with visitation the main benefit, Mr Pressley said.
“The whole purpose of building these is to get that ‘oh wow’ factor,” he said.
The iconic big things range from the amazing to the quirky to mediocre.
A super-sized rolling pin looms over a bakery in Victoria’s Wodonga, a Big Mango lights up the Bruce Highway in Queensland Bowen, and Darwin’s Big Boxing Crocodile is even cheesier than The Big Cheese in the Bega Valley of NSW.
Koonoomoo’s Big Strawberry.
And when it comes to towns boasting big prawns and big bananas, there are a few.
Mr Pressley said visitors posting selfies with the novelty sculptures on social media helps to promote the town and entice more tourism to the region.
“The big hope I suppose when they’re building these monuments is to get people taking photos of themselves with this big potato or whatever behind them, then putting them out on social media so all their friends can like it and go, ‘Hey, where is that?’” he explained.
The Big Merino is a drawcard for the town of Goulburn. Picture: Getty
“Then the family and friends who have seen the photo start asking questions about the town they themselves probably know nothing about.
“It just creates more awareness – it’s really clever.”
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