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Australians are obsessed by big shit. At least that's the opinion most tourists seem to arrive at, particularly after a trip up the eastern coastline. Well perhaps we do have knack of covering the landscape with large fibreglass icons with a slightly obsessive zeal, but it's an obsession firmly routed in love. Love of our towns, love of the industries that built them, love of fibreglass, steel and concrete constructions and of course love of the bizarre.
No one seems to really care if these structures have any artistic merit or asthetic beauty for that matter, nor is it important that someone else may have already built a similar big piece of shit in some other country town. The important thing is that the town has something big of it's own. Something that will make people want to stop their journey, gauk (often in horror) for 10 minutes or so, take pictures and, hopefully, buy souvenirs. I know I have always treasured my snow dome of the big banana
This is the way that towns will imprint themselves into the memory of those fortunate enough to pass through, an experience they will hopefully pass on to others. It also brings the possibility of international recognition (risking possible ridicule) and occasionally creates such terror in children's minds that years of therapy will follow later in life. What 4 year old won't spend many a sleepless night in fear of the giant prawn with the glowing eyes?
Why do we have this obsession, where did it first come from? Fucked if I know, but I could hazard a guess. It probably comes from the fact that we live in a large, and mostly empty, country where anything smaller than huge seems so insignificant to the landscape that it is immediately forgotten. Either that or everyone in rural Australia drinks too much and have way too much time on their hands.
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