The (big) Queenslander sign at Wallangarra on the Qld/NSW border

The Big Hose at QAGOMA, South Banks, Brisbane is a 119 metre long garden hose. The artists were told to create something outstanding – no pressure! There are no kinks….yet.

A Big Crab in a private yard at Donnybrook – I’m not sure of its name but I called it Claude.

A Big Seahorse at Mooloolaba – fintastic!

A Big Pelican in a playground at Sunshine Plaza on the Sunshine Coast overlooking Cornmeal Creek. Another large bill for this one.

A Big Seal at Sunshine Plaza, Maroochydore- the sealiest bit of play equipment.

The Big Cartwheeling Child – “iDIDIT!” is a 6-metre-high, nine-tonne sculpture of a cartwheeling child located in the Birtinya health precinct on the Sunshine Coast.

A Big ??? at Cotton Tree. Is this part of a Big Sextant? Any help appreciated

The Big Remote Control at Kunda park on the Sunshine Coast.

My remote control batteries died today. So I gave them away, free of charge.

Big Kookaburras at Mount-Cootha (Simpsons Falls), Brisbane

Big Gumnuts at Mount-Cootha (Simpsons Falls), Brisbane

The Big Lamington on the long and winding road to….Lamington National Park between Canungra and Green Mountains.

Big Watermelon Slice at Chinchilla – it looked pretty good despite being a bit seedy.

After years of searching, we finally found the G Spot! Outside Rockhampton at the Gracemere Industrial Park – 5000kg of steel – gee whiz! G definitely marks the spot! After some initial enthusiasm, the experience was a bit of an anticlimax.

The Big Hands at Benaraby. The hands were having an argument. After a while, the left hand realised the other guy was right.

The Big Giraffe at its cafe in Bororen. No short order cooks here, only tall ones. If the meal is not satisfactory, the giraffe never apologizes. It takes them too long to swallow their pride. Next door a Bundy Bear look-a-like is pretty cool and never frets (just like his guitar).

The Big Gem at Anakie – an addition to our multi-faceted day.

Sapphire is a sapphire town and is another example of lazy Australian nomenclature, so is the township of Rubyvale. The Big Pick, Shovel, and Sieve in Sapphire. This sapphire miner (at Sapphire) argued about how to the use the sieve properly – it strained our relationship.

The Big Sapphire Ring at Sapphire. Advice for those thinking of getting engaged, consider this carefully – on the one hand, you get to wear a pretty ring like this. On the other hand, you don’t.

The Big Spanner is also at Sapphire – sound advice.

The Big Miner at the Bobby Dazzler Mine in Rubyvale. Bobby was happy to work in a tourism mine – many of his other mining mates were shafted.

Kingaroy Big Peanut. Did you hear about the peanut that wanted to be a lecturer? It wanted to go into macadamia.

Surat also has a Big Cod. Freshwater fish also provide Omega 3 which helps brain function – now that’s food for thought.

A (slightly) Big Pumpkin at Goomeri. I wasn’t expecting it – it caught me completely off gourd.

The Cunnamulla Fella – a larger than life character. The concept started life as a song by Slim Dusty. The sculpture is based on a drawing inspired by the song lyrics. The lines from the song that refer to the Cunnamulla Fella are:

“Now I’m a scrubber, runner and a breaker too,
I live on damper and wallaby stew,
I’ve got a big cattle dog with a staghound cross,
I never saw the scrubber we couldn’t toss,
‘Cause I’m the fella from Cunnamulla
Yes I’m the Cunnamulla Fella.”

The Big Frilled Lizard at Eulo – I photographed this just for the frill of it.

The Big Meat Ant at Augathella is an impressive structure. With those enormous antenna, it provided a good reception to visitors to town.

The Big Roly Poly art piece at Blackall

The Big B at the northern approach – after the excitement seeing the Big G earlier on our journey, seeing the Big B was an unexpected bonus.

The Big Red Roo at Blackall.

Hey-ey-ey, Good old Eagle Rock is here to stay, I’m just crazy ’bout the way we move, Doin’ the Eagle Rock (Daddy Cool from 1971). The Big Wedge-tailed eagle on Chinaman Creek Dam road.

The Big Barrell at The Irish Club at Happy Valley at Mount Isa.

Community Art project – this one at the Thomson River bridge near Muttaburra. This fish has a few issues but nothing that can’t be ironed out.

The Big Stockman at Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach

The Big Chair at Muttaburra – the locals are very chair-atable.

The Big Queensland map at Muttaburra – a monument to its status as the geographical centre of Queensland.

Big Blue Heeler on Blue Heeler Hotel at Kynuna – sadly we were too early for yappy hour.

Big Jabirus on the Lake Dunn-Aramac Sculpture Trail – storking their prey.

The Big Crayfish at Lake Dunn

Big Echidna – a star-pick(et) on the Lake Dunn-Aramac Sculpture Trail

The impressive Big ANZAC badge at Aramac – “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

Three Big Brolgas at Nelia. Add the two humans who live there makes the population 5.

The Big Magpie and Nest at Miriam Vale at Gary Larson Oval. I assume this is the Far Side of town. Actually this Gary Larson was a Queensland State of Origin Rugby League legend and local boy.

The Big Donut – holey moley! Are these healthy eating? They are holefoods.

Also at Miriam Vale is the Big Crab. This crustacean didn’t cross the road to get here – it used the sidewalk.

For the love of cod! The Mighty Murray Cod at Goondiwindi was commissioned by the local Lions Club. It is much bigger than the real thing – it is a scale model.

A Big Wine Bottle at Tamborine Mountain. This one has trouble holding its liquor.

A Big Crustacean at the Seafood Van, Erbachers Market at Diddillibah. And it was nearly Christmas – time for a visit from Sandy Claws.

The Big Pineapple at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast. This 16 metre high pineapple was built in 1971. Sweet!

Also at Woombye is The Big Macadamia – welcome to the nuthouse.

The Big Mower at Beerwah – a cut above the rest.

A Big Goanna in a park down a side street in Maroochydore. This one has been here for many years monitoring the park.

The Big Bunyip at Mulgildie – a plaque tells the significance of the bunyip at this locality: Aboriginals tell the story of fearsome booming monsters that inhabit swamps and waterholes. Just ten minutes from the tranquil township of Mulgildie lies the legendary Bunyip Hole, a place of mystery and intrigue. Over the years, tales have emerged of strange noises, bubbling, churning water in the hole and of cattle disappearing into the depths as they drank. Known as “Devil Devil” country, Aboriginal tribes and drovers too, could not be persuaded to camp near the Bunyip Hole. Some Aboriginal elders believe the Bunyip Hole is connected to a vast network of underground caverns passing Tellebang Mountain and stretching as far as Ban Ban Springs. Bunyip is carrying its typical lunch of cattle and lungfish.

The Big Joey at Mulgildie

The Big Director’s Chair at Biloela – Bille Brown was an actor and director of stage plays in Australia and Great Britain working at times with his friend Geoffrey Rush. He also worked in film and television starring in movies including Fierce Freatures (with John Cleese), The Dish and Chronicles of Narnia.

A Big Pig at the Jambin Hotel – home of the Boarcomp – crowning King and Queen of CQ – the hopeful entrants sing “Dont go bacon my heart.”

Sarina is a big sugar cane town with a very big cane toad – celebrating the despised pest with an eye-catching monument to a biological control failure. Road parking sign nearby – “Frog Parking only, all others will be toad.”

Ayr has a Big Snake – 60 metres long! Now a hissterical joke – ” A woman once tried to buy an exotic snake on line. When the package arrived, it only contained feather scarves. Looks like the boa cons tricked her.”

The Big Mango at Bowen. How can you tell it’s ripe? Come on, it’s not that hard!

The Big Pumpkin at Gumlu in North Queensland. It is such a great entity it has developed a gourd complex.

Also at Gumlu is the Big (Slice) of Watermelon – we weren’t meloncholy to see this! What-a-melon!

The Big Mud Crab at Cardwell. Looks a bit crabby.

The Big Golden Gumboot at Tully – celebrating (arguably along with Babinda or Innisfail) the wettest town in Australia. The boot stands at 7.9 m high representing the record rainfall for Tully in 1950. What do you call the day after 2 days of continuous rain? Monday.

The Big Cassowary at Mission Beach in 1981. It is still there. They can be very dangerous when they kick – the man above is not being casso-wary.

The Big Sausage King at Gray’s Modern Meat Mart in Toowoomba. In 2010 it was stolen, and despite a reward of 10 kilograms of sausage from the store it was not found. Radio station Triple M even offered a $500 reward. Eventually, it was discovered eleven months later in a local quarry. The robbers must have been the wurst kind of people. The author here is excited to be in the presence of royalty. That’s an offally big sausage. Apparently the butchers here string sausages together by their casings to make ends meet.

The Big Shock Absorber was an exciting find. Shock absorbers help with my unease of speed bumps that I am slowly getting over.

The Big Yabby at Moonie

The Big Cod at St George. This young lady survived the attack – luckily her injuries were only super-fish-oil.

The Big Boomerang sculptures at Nindigully celebrates the day Hugh Jackman came to Nindigully – I told a boomerang joke once but it went over people’s heads.

William the Big Wombat at Thallon – one of Australia’s Big Things. The critically endangered Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat once lived in this area. A preserved specimen at the Qld Museum was from this location. A reserve to save the wombat from extinction is north-west of Clermont. We pawsed there for a while.

The Big Camp Oven at Millmerran

The Big Teepee in Millmerran

Wow – this is hard core! The Big Apple at Thulimbah near Stanthorpe. What’s the worst thing about having an apple addiction? You can’t see a doctor about it.

The Big Bulls at Rockhampton – not sure if they are oversized or just replicas but they a feature of Rocky.

The giant Van Gogh inspired sunflowers on The Big Easel in a park in Emerald. We know this one is genuine – it has a bit of veneer missing.

The Big Red Elephant at the Jumbo Shopping Centre at Hatton Vale on the Warrego Highway.

A Big Kangaroo – Matilda at the Puma Traveston just south of Gympie. Matilda was the mascot of the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane. She was built on top of a forklift, 13 metres tall and weighing six tonnes. The wink, wriggling ears and head turning was an exciting spectacle in 1982. I think the medal is for the Long Jump.

Tiaro is famous for the longest traffic jams in a small Queensland country town, a good butcher and Mr T – a Mary River Turtle (“bum-breathing turtle”). Mr T tortoise everything we know about his local waterways.

The Big Garlic and Big Artichoke. We stopped in West End, Brisbane for brekkie and found these – we asked at a local cafe if they had garlic bread but they had naan.

Also at West End ios the Big Dragon Fruit. Pretty fly…for a cacti.

The Big Australian Coat of Arms outside Goondiwindi

The Big Rum Bottle at the Bundaberg Rum Distillery – the happy workers here were in high spirits.

The Big Bowling Pin. Most Bundy locals love bowling. You get over an hour eating and drinking interspersed with a few periods of six seconds of exercise. I was going to tell a bowling joke but I will strike it from my mind and spare you.

The Big Magpie at a sports club is every postie’s nightmare. This one goes to the gym so he can work on his pecks.

The Big Barrel at the Bundaberg Brewing Company – home of Bundaberg Ginger Beer. What is the difference between this big barrel and a bucket? A bucket pails in comparison.

The Big (mutant zombified) Lungfish in Bundaberg near the river – the “Burnett Beast”. It is breathtaking!

Bargara is a short 15 minute drive from Bundy and the Big Turtle lives in the playground by the ocean. I was shell-shocked at its sheer enormity. Nearby at Mon Repos beach on summer nights over a period of 4 months, thousands of tourists walk the beaches with guides watching loggerhead and flatback turtles lay their eggs. Approximately 6 weeks later, the hatchlings emerge to make their way to the water past hordes of tourists. It is the equivalent of massed reptile tourism of human maternity wards. Sometimes the lights from the land cause the hatchlings to head inland away from the sea. This is a case of reptile dysfunction.

The Big Orange at Gayndah

And a visit to Gayndah would not be complete without seeing Gay Dan the Orange Festival Man. Gay Dan once worked at an orange juice factory but was let go because he couldn’t concentrate.

The Big Mandarin at Mundubbera

The owner of this service station at Tinana, Maryborough gave it his best shot with this eye-poppin Big Ned Kelly showing that Australians should just focus on what they do best with the eclectic array of Big Things on offer across our great land.