Blueberries Blog

A road trip of Australia’s fibreglass monuments

The Big Cassowary

A couple of hours south of Cairns you’ll find Mission Beach. This charming little tropical paradise exists mainly as a day trip for people in Cairns. It’s also the mainland point for Dunk Island, one of the most stunningly beautiful of all Queensland’s islands. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, it also has the Big Cassowary.

The entire area between Cairns and Cardwell is actually known as the Cassowary Coast, named after the large flightless birds that like to hang out there. The cassowary is a rather comical looking bird, related to the emu but with worse fashion sense. Like a cross between an emu and any character from Kath and Kim.

Not only that, they also have a knack of annoying the local human population by often walking right into people’s houses in search of food and sometimes to rearrange the furniture. Cassowaries have also been known to trample flower beds, steal food from picnic tables, and even attack backpackers for food (but they will draw the line at 2-minute noodles, proving that even these notorious scavengers have standards).

The cassowary is also on the endangered list, with only about 1,500 estimated to be left in the wild. This is mainly because of habitat loss and fragmentation, not to mention bad Queensland drivers. The Cassowary Coast has lots of ‘Speeding has killed cassowaries’ road signs, all with charmingly illustrated symbols of a cassowary getting run over.

However, any collision with the Big Cassowary would almost certainly result in the vehicle coming out second best. The 5m high structure is made of solid concrete over a steel frame, not only protecting it from those bad drivers but also giving it an evolutionary advantage over its flesh and feather counterparts.

It was originally built in the late 1980s by businessman Darryl Lourigan to stand outside his service station. When the site was sold to the Mission Beach Resort, the service station was demolished but the Big Cassowary remained intact, minus her two small concrete chicks. She now stands outside a shopping centre, which kind of reinforces the Kath and Kim connection.

When Cyclone Yasi struck far north Queensland in February 2011, it left about 10% of Australia’s cassowary population effectively homeless, due to destroyed habitat. Once again, however, the Big Cassowary proved to be a resilient survivor. Yet another indication that Big Things will eventually inherit what’s left of the Earth.

Last Friday Blueberries hosted an End of Year Luncheon followed by a 12-hour sewathon the next day.

Over 120 eager quilters arrived at Blueberries on Friday for a sneak peek of projects and classes on offer for 2012, which includes new quilts, block of months and more. After seeing what the tutors had on offer it was time for “Show and Tell” of projects completed over the last 12 months and amidst all this excitement a light lunch and sweets were enjoyed cumulating in a pleasant afternoon for all.

On Saturday Blueberries hosted a 12-hour Sewathon (what else is there to do after being inspired and excited at the Luncheon). At 11:30am ladies started to arrive - keen and eager to find a spot, setup and ready to hit the sewing pedal at midday. Over 50 marathon sewers packed the Wyong Function Centre and by mid-afternoon everyone was well and truly into their sewing - the atmosphere was humming! After some afternoon snacks and a glass of champagne to celebrate the year the sewing continued. About 7pm dinner was served to satisfy an well earned appetite. After dinner the 50 or so sewers were back into it ready for the home stretch to midnight and ended a fantastic fun-filled day.

Enjoy some of the photos we took on Friday and Saturday by visiting our Facebook page.

A road trip of Australia’s fiberglass monuments

The Big Pink Buffalo

These days, the colour pink is firmly associated with breast cancer research, and even cricket teams will happily don pink outfits to help raise awareness for this very worthy cause.

But pink hasn’t always generated such widespread public kudos, and no-one knows this better than the Big Pink Buffalo. Over the years this stoic Big Thing, which lives in the Darwin suburb of Winnellie, has endured scorn, derision, controversy and even homelessness – and all because of his colour.

Like several other Big Things we’ve already met in our travels, the Big Pink Buffalo began his life as a papier mache float in a local parade. It was 1978 when he made his very first public appearance at Darwin’s Bougainvillea Festival, although he wasn’t originally pink, but grey. After the Festival, the owners of the nearby Buffalo Shed tourist shop thought the 7.5m long, 5m high structure would make a great mascot for their business, so they adopted the Buffalo, concreted him and even gave him wheels. He was also given a name – ‘Lefty’ – which is rumoured to have come from the fact that his left testicle was larger than his right.

In 1984, new owners of the business decided to paint Lefty pink, so that he wouldn’t blend in with the grey shed that stood behind him. For some reason however, this change of colour quickly proved to be highly controversial, with many locals expressing their outrage on talkback radio (and as everyone knows, callers to talkback radio are always right). Maybe it was the combination of Lefty’s name and colour that so raised the ire of these staunchly conservative souls. Suddenly he seemed to be making a suspiciously political statement – Equal Rights For Gay Buffaloes, or something just as threatening. While the controversy raged, someone even painted Lefty grey again in the middle of the night.

By the time the Buffalo Shed closed its doors for good in 1996, Lefty was proudly and defiantly pink again, but the demise of the business also meant he was now homeless. The outgoing owner, Bob Davies, had no idea how to dispose of a 7 tonne concrete buffalo, and at one stage even considered explosives. Fortunately for Lefty, this nightmarish scenario never materialised and instead he was auctioned for $2,500 to a used car dealership, which some people might argue was an even worse fate than being blown up.

Lefty has since become a much-loved Darwin icon, having gradually won over his critics with his patience, tenacity and refusal to be anything less than the Big Pink Buffalo that he so proudly is. Quite appropriate for Darwin actually, as it really has been a case of survival of the fittest (or rather, the pinkest).

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.