These postal numismatic cover celebrates Aussie Big Things as part of Collecting Month 2023, and features a special Big Things $1 coin. Aussie Big Things is a celebration of the great Australian road trip. And with more than 200 of these massive landmarks scattered across the country, tourists and locals are propelled to ‘tick off’ the Big Things as they drive throughout Australia.
The Big Banana
The Big Banana, one of the country's original Big Things, is a tourist photo favourite. Situated at a banana plantation in Coffs Harbour, NSW, this iconic landmark is part of an amusement park featuring a toboggan ride, an ice skating rink and plantation tours.
The Big Blue Heeler
The Big Blue Heeler statue commemorates a type of Australian Cattle Dog believed to have originated in the 1840s in Muswellbrook, a town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales. Originally bred by cattle farmers by crossing the dingo with the Northumberland Blue Merle, this working dog can handle high temperatures while quietly and swiftly herding cattle.
The Big Jumping Crocodile
The Big Jumping Crocodile, located off the Arnhem Highway some 55kms east of Darwin, Northern Territory, shows the creature balanced on its tail, as if leaping out of the water to catch food.
The Big Lobster
He’s known as ‘Larry the Lobster’ and this gigantic crustacean towers over visitors at 17m tall. Originally conceived by a local fisherman, the Big Lobster has been attracting tourists to its home in Kingston SE, South Australia for decades.
The Big Pineapple
Standing tall at 16m high, the Big Pineapple has attracted millions of visitors over the decades to its Woombye home in the Sunshine Coast. This Queensland icon is now heritage listed, celebrating the sweet, tropical fruit the state is known for producing.
The Big Swoop
The Big Swoop sculpture, located in Garema Place, in central Canberra, depicts a black-and-white Australian Magpie pecking at a hot chip. Love them or loathe them, magpies are a ubiquitous part of Australia’s birdlife and are known for their tuneful, yodelling call and inquisitive nature. The structure was made by local artist Yanni Pounartzis, and stands 2.4m high, 3.5m long and weighs half of a metric tonne.
The Big Tasmanian Devil
The Big Tasmanian Devil stands at the entrance to the privately-owned Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary near Mole Creek, in northern Tasmania. Situated in 82 acres of native bushland, the sanctuary is dedicated to the care and conservation of the region’s native wildlife, including the threatened Tasmanian Devil.
The Giant Koala
The Giant Koala is located in the western Victorian town of Dadswells Bridge, 20km south-east of Horsham. Made in 1989 by Dutch sculptor Ben Van Zetten, it is composed of bronze and fibreglass supported by a steel frame. At 14 by eight metres, this massive structure is more a building than sculpture. Indeed, the interior, accessible through the Koala’s front forearms, houses a souvenir and gift shop.
The Giant Murray Cod
The city of Swan Hill is home to the Giant Murray Cod, a tribute to a legendary native fish. Fifteen metres long, three metres wide and five metres high, the steel and fiberglass structure is at once a symbol of civic pride, an inducement for tourist snaps and highlights awareness that numbers of this species, once common in the Murray–Darling River system, have been greatly reduced.
The Giant Ram
Standing proud in Wagin Shire, WA is the Giant Ram, a whopping 13m long white fibreglass marvel, showcasing the local area’s wool industry.
