Australia's Big Tourist Attractions - Are They Really Worth Visiting

Australia has a quaint history of creating big public artworks named after - and resembling - local fruits, vegetables, animals, historical figures and everyday objects. There are now more than 100 of these "big things" around the country.

Perhaps the best known of these is the Big Banana, located in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Other big fruit artworks include the Big Apple (Donnybrook, Western Australia) and the Big Pineapple (Nambour, Queensland). Big animal artworks include the Big Merino (Goulburn, NSW), the Big Lobster (Kingston, South Australia), the Big Bull (Wauchope, NSW), and - up in Australia's far north - the Big Crocodile (Jabiru, Northern Territory).

Historical figures given the big treatment include the Big Ned Kelly, a monument commemorating Australia's most famous outlaw (Glenrowan, Victoria), and the Big Captain Cook (Cairns, Queensland). Australia's "big things" have attracted a lot of attention among commentators, sometimes causing a wry smile, sometimes harsh criticism.

In his travel book, In a Sunburned Country, the ever-humorous Bill Bryson writes: "Give [Australians] a bale of chicken wire, some fiberglass and a couple of pots of paint and they will make you, say, an enormous pineapple or strawberry or, as here, a lobster." He describes the 56-foot mammoth statue known as the Big Lobster as reminding him of "the leftover props from a 1950s horror movie." Some tourism writers and cultural commentators criticize these large artworks quite severely, labelling them as gross, blots on the landscape, or tourist traps.

Some of these writers attribute "big statue" construction to the desire of well-meaning but unimaginative bureaucrats and business entrepreneurs to attract foreign and domestic tourists to otherwise unremarkable towns. These same people, they argue, have tended to create with their big statues an often dumbed-down and sanitized version of Australia's industries, history and culture. Others point to a kind of edifice complex, where the locals are blind to the abundance of truly great natural wonders around Australia and prefer to build somewhat tacky theme parks to attract the tourist dollar.

Many would point to the overpriced souvenirs, refreshments and tour tickets that certain of these attractions sell to tourists who stop by for a photo opportunity. Yet it is undeniable that some of these "big" tourist artworks and their surrounds are carefully planned and well executed enterprises which succeed in drawing in a somewhat jaded public and educate them, while entertaining them, about the local industries, agricultural products, history, and everyday culture.

The Big Banana, for example, offers, apart from a free walk-through of the Big Banana statue, an interesting "banana experience" theater that gives visitors a quite detailed, if brief, introduction to bananas and the banana industry. In addition, visitors can take a short tour of the adjacent plantation and taste bananas, banana sweets and smoothies. For the more serious visitors to towns around Australia there are lengthy farm and factory tours, large museums, informative lectures, original historical sites, and carefully constructed replicas. Many of these are run by industry associations, academic institutions, heritage bodies, or local historical societies.

But would those more academic and serious alternatives appeal to ordinary tourists and those with limited time and interest? The answer can perhaps be seen in the fact that thousands of individual tourists and coachloads of travelers continue to come day after day to see the "big" statue attractions.

Perhaps the real question should be: are these "big statue" attractions accurate portrayals of Australia's industries, historical events, and everyday life - or merely glamorized, sanitized and commercialised versions of the reality? And, if they are not accurate, how can they be improved?

Further Information: For some interesting pictures of the Big Banana and other "big" statues in Australia, visit http://www.australiaforvisitors.com/big-things-in-australia.html

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Book Review - In A Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson is best known for his humorous travel writing. Previously, I had read two of Bryon's other books. One was titled, I'm a Stranger Here Myself. This book was about Bryson's return to living in the United States after living in Great Britain for twenty years or so. His writing portrayed how differently Americans are from the rest of the world, from the cars we drive to our love of fast food restaurants. The second book of his I read was titled, A Walk in the Woods. This book was about Bryson's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, from start to finish (Georgia to Maine). He accurately portrayed the difficulties in hiking pretty much the entire east coast and all of the interesting animals and people one might encounter while on the mighty trek.

Keeping in line with his first two books, the third book I read was called In a Sunburned Country. This book deals with Bryson's multi-week trip through the massive land mass that is Australia. The author traveled to all of the major tourist destinations, from viewing the Sydney Opera House to the Great Barrier Reef, and everywhere in between. He seems to have traveled at a leisurely pace and a very generous budget.

While reading In a Sunburned Country, you notice how much character Australia has as a whole, and also how quirky it is. Bryson notes several times that Australia has dozens of prized, larger-than-life monuments of random objects. For example, he travels to a giant earth worm museum located in a, you guessed it, enormous earth-worm shaped building. Some might consider this type of monument weird, but it is one of the many unique things that Australia has and takes pride in. If Australia has the largest, most disgusting worm in the world, why not show it off?

Bill Bryson also discusses many times how the country has thousands of animals that are not even discovered yet and do not exist anywhere else in the world. People constantly trek into the jungle or Outback to look for undiscovered animals, and the result is that once in a while an animal that was thought to be extinct thousands of years ago is found. Not only are there rare animals, but there are trees that rival the size of any trees in the world and some of the oldest organisms in the world, that simply look like a gray mush.

One of the constant themes in this book is that the country is much larger than anyone realizes. Cities are spread out here and there, and the large ones are on the coast, but there are small cities of hundreds of thousands of people that are thousands of miles away from any other city. Getting from one city to another may take a day or two, and everywhere in between the two cities is desert with an occasional gas station and bar. The larger cities on the coast have main-stream hotels, restaurants from every culture, and many bars that Bryson utilizes.

The best part of the book in my opinion is when the author visits the Great Barrier Reef with a good friend. He travels to the Reef on a large boat with approximately 400 people and takes part in various water-related activities. There is also talk of a couple who were killed near the Reef several years in the past, and rumors of Jellyfish and sharks that like to nibble on humans, so Bryson is careful the entire time he is near the water.

Overall, In a Sunburned Country is very entertaining and will definitely make you laugh once or twice every chapter. Bill Bryson has a straight-forward, easy-to-understand way of writing and will always leave you wanting to read more. Although the book is a bit long, it is still very entertaining. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5.

Daniel Breedlove is the owner and manager of Corner Office Books, the internet's premier website on business book reviews and sales. For hundreds of reviews of the best business books ever written, visit the website at http://CornerOfficeBooks.com/

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