A road trip of Australia’s fiberglass monuments

The Big Stockwhip

Is it possible to write about the world’s largest stockwhip without using phrases like “get cracking” and “whip around”? Let’s see.

(Damn, too late already!)

We’re about 60kms south of Darwin at Mick’s Whips homestead, a 20-acre whip-themed property where you can see the most spectacular whip-cracking demonstrations in the country. Professional whip maker Mick Denigan has been teaching ordinary folk how to crack like experts for years. He also exports thousands of hand-made whips to people including Bill Gates, actor Keeanu Reeves and former US president, George Bush. He also provided all the whips in Baz Luhrmann’s 2008 movie, Australia, placing both Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman at serious risk of being upstaged by their props.

And then of course, there’s the Big Stockwhip, which does a mighty fine job of upstaging all the real ones. This is a 7m high, 20m long steel replica of a real stockwhip that curls proudly over the main gates of Mick’s Whips. Cattle get nervous just looking at it. The structure is painted in the Territory’s colours of black, red and ochre and took three months to construct. It was officially unveiled in 2003 by former National Party leader and patron of the Northern Territory Whipcrackers’ Association, Tim Fischer.

As impressive as the Big Stockwhip is, it still doesn’t quite prepare people for Mick’s spectacular demonstrations, especially when he performs them at night with whips that are on fire. He also produces ‘whip art’, with paint-covered whips that are lashed at a canvas, and has written a novel called The Whip Cracker, which could well be the title of his autobiography. As a licensed crocodile harvester, Mick also once made a crocodile guitar strap for Bob Dylan, yet another famous name on his clientele list.

Compared to the other states, the Northern Territory is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to Big Things. Leave it to a performing, croc harvesting, whip-making artist to add to the modest list.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Recipe

This is a recipe I have made quite a few times, you can have it  hot or cold which is good for this time of year with summer here it is picnic time. Cold chicken and salad. Yum!

Ingredients:
8 Pieces of chicken(legs, thighs, wings, breasts) you can use any of these.

Marinade:
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 cups of Buttermilk

Put all the Marinade into bowl and mix together, then add the chicken pieces make sure all the chicken is covered with th marinade,cover with gladwrap and put in fridge for 6 hours.

Seasoned flour for the coating:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Mix all together in a large baking dish. Drain the chicken pieces and toss in flour make sure chicken is coated all over and put on a plate.

2 Litres of Peanut Oil

Heat the oil in a large heavy based pan, carefully add the chicken, becareful not to burn the chicken keep an eye on how high you have the stove on. Once cooked drain on wire rack 5mins.

Enjoy!

A road trip of Australia’s fiberglass monuments

The Big Crocodile

“Ne-ver smile at a croc-o-dile
Ne-ver dip your hat and stop to talk a-while…”

Actually, you can do all of those things with this crocodile. In fact, some people even climb all over it and have their photos taken dangling from between its gaping jaws, even though there’s a sign strictly forbidding this kind of foolishness.

Maybe it’s the heat. We’re in the eastern Kimberley, in the town of Wyndham, which claims to be the hottest place in Australia. And with an annual average daily maximum of 35 degrees, they’re probably right.

Wyndham is over 3,000kms from Perth and still another 900kms to Darwin, so the town was certainly crying out for something apart from the weather to put it on the map. Perfect conditions, in fact, for a Big Thing.

As the many estuaries surrounding Wyndham are home to saltwater crocodiles, it seemed natural to create a giant replica of one to sit at the town’s entrance and greet all visitors with a wide-mouthed, toothy grin. The Big Crocodile was constructed with steel rods, welding rods, lots of bird mesh and finished with a generous coating of concrete. It commenced duties in 1987 and has been a popular backdrop for visitors’ photographs ever since.

The Big Crocodile has pretty impressive vital statistics, too. At 3m high and a whopping 20m long, it’s another of those instances where size really does seem to matter. This might almost seem like overkill, but the structure’s larger-than-life scale was deliberate. It provides a valuable community service, posing as a very big reminder to visitors and locals alike why they shouldn’t swim in the crocodile-infested waters.