Big Banana

The Big Banana is a tourist attraction in the city of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales and consists of a large building in the shape of a banana. Many banana-related products are shown or sold, and the grounds of the building are a banana plantation. Built in 1964, it was the first of Australia's Big Things.

The original Big Banana has been copied by the Big Bananas at Carnarvon, Western Australia.

The Big Banana is an icon of the area and a local factor of pride. The large recreational facilities attached to the statue are, statistically, the most popular leisure facilities on the Australian East Coast. Especially, the artificial ski slope competes with ski areas in New Zealand for visitor numbers and popularity. Conversely, the locals describe it as being "rather tacky".Fact|date=March 2008 The Big Banana also includes an ice skating rink, tobogganing and a monorail tour of the banana plantations.

History of the Big Banana

In 1964 John Landy wanted something to make passing traffic stop at his roadside banana stall. He had already heard of the "Big Pineapple" in Hawaii and thought that something big would definitely stop traffic.

With assistance of 1500 pounds and local engineer Alan Chapman, he set about designing the giant banana by cutting the best looking banana he could find into 40 pieces and developing plans from which builders could work.

It took six Queenslander's three days to bend the Big Banana

The biggest banana in the world was officially opened on December 22 that year.

Not long after John Enevoldson joined as a partner and they expanded with 20 more plantation acres, a shop, cafe and a larger car park with both wives and three employees at the helm.

In 1968 John retired and sold his share to Alan who continued building the business until 1988 when it was sold to Horticulture World which was part owned by local businessman Bob Johnston.Bob continued expanding the Big Banana into an educational showcase before undergoing a $30 million redevelopment that re-opened in June 1989.

But disaster struck and 12 months later the big banana went into provisional liquidation, though still trading until Mr Kevin Ruby, seeing huge potential in the complex, purchased it in 1993.

Postage stamp

Australia Post issued a set of 50c postage stamps in 2007 commemorating various big things, include the Big Banana. The other big thing stamps were:
* (Big) Golden Guitar at Tamworth, New South Wales.
* Big Lobster at Kingston SE, South Australia.
* Big Merino (sheep) at Goulburn, New South Wales
* Big Pineapple at Nambour, Queensland. [http://www.gibbonsstampmonthly.com/story.asp?storycode=3094&preview=1]

External links

* [http://www.bigbanana.com/ Big Banana Official Website]