"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Monday, May 08, 2006

The Big... This and That.


We have a facination here in Oz. for the "BIG" whatever it
may be.
I didn't know what I was letting myself in for
when I
said you could pick a font size, blogger
seems to want
to do it's own thing with the
print, maybe I'll work it out?


Top row L to R
The big gumboot
The big Joint
The big crayfish

Middle row L to R
The big curtain fig
The big... er.. um ???
The big galah



Bottom row L to R
The big potatoe
The big whale
The big koala


The big Gumboot, (Wellington Boot, Wellie) this is located
at Tully, Nth Qld. Tully is the wettest town in Australia, they
measure their rainfall in feet not inches up there, so it is

fitting that their biggie is the gumboot.


The Big Joint, is something of a trademark at Nimbin, NSW. long
recognized as the Hippie capital of
Australia
, what could be
more fitting.


The Big Crayfish, is located at the small coastal town of
Kingston
, SA. there is an active fishing fleet based here
and they do catch
a lot of crayfish.


The Big Curtain Fig, this is the only natural Big thing in
this list, the fig is a parasite tree that grows from the
top down after a seed is dropped in the host tree in a
bird dropping.
The sheer weight of this one toppled the host tree over
until it got caught up in the branches of another tree, at
an angle of about 40 degrees this allowed the fig to send
down aerial roots in a massive “curtain.”
This tree is in the Hinterland, (love that word hinterland)

Behind
Cairns in Nth Qld.


The Big… er.. um.. whatever, I got in a bit early when I
said there was only one natural thing in this list, this is a
very spikey big cactus, so I guess you could call it The Big
Prick… that is if you wanted to… or not.


The Big Galah, can be found at the small SA town of Kimba
their claim to fame is that Kimba is located almost exactly
halfway across the continent if you are traveling on the
Eyre Highway either East or West, (they also have a lot of

Galah’s here too.)


The Big Potato, or Spud, Now I love potato’s but a memorial
to one, C’mon folks.. this one is so nebulous that I can’t even
remember where it is.


The Big Whale, well actually it’s quite a small whale by whale
standards it’s located on the Eyre Highway at the Nullarbor
Service Station/Roadhouse.
This is just a little inland from The Great Australian Bight,
(I mentioned we like Big things here) where the Southern
Right whales come in winter when it gets too cold in the
Ant-Arctic waters for them.


The Big Koala, this can be found at Dadswell Bridge, a tiny
settlement near Horsham in Victoria, you can enter a small
gift shop through a doorway set in the koala’s tummy,
always strikes me as something I don’t want to do!!!



10 comments:

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ This is a good start. Are there more to come, like bananas and
pineapples and Merinos etc?
Blogger has his own ideas ~ I have to edit most posts 3 or 4 times and then they are not how I want them. I give up after 4 tries. I leave enormous spaces
between and blogger just ignores that.
Cheers, Merle.

Karen said...

*snortle* The big...er...um... yes, I wondered what that thing was as well.

Great photos though, I liked the theme. It's cool that you've been so many places to have seen them all.

Have a great day!

Meow (aka Connie) said...

What about the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana (Coffs Harbour), the Big EarthWorm (Bass, Victoria !! There are heaps others, though, aren't there. I hadn't ever seen the big Joint ... where is that ?? Byron Bay ??
Thanks, Peter. Take care, Meow

Anonymous said...

Oh my..I'd say you have a BIG sense of humor in Australia. That Koala store reminds me of some stores in Myrtle Beach, SC -- you walk thru a shark's mouth. OUCH!

Great background pic.

Anonymous said...

is that Holties House? :)

Prerona

Vickie said...

What a great "Big" smile you brought to my face. I enjoyed this post
very much Peter. Thanks for all the work you went to so you could
share it. Yes blogger does have a mind of its own.

Jamie Dawn said...

I really liked this post. It was visually interesting and I liked learning about each pic. I must admit that The Big Prick pic was one I was eager to learn more about. :)
That cactus is a whopper!!

I really like the new background pic of your kids.
Very nice.

Anonymous said...

Like your new background. I see you have been busy. The big joint is too funny. I loved the photos and the info.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

That's very interesting and I'm trying to think of something BIG that we might have...the only thing I can recall is a big dinosaur, but for dinosaur standards, it really wouldn't be big.

Your pictures are very interesting...makes me want to go out in search of something big to photograph.

JunieRose2005 said...

LOL- I liked seeing all those 'BIG' things!

June