Worlds Largest...

[Little Miss Risk]

It would seem that Australians, much like North Americans, when confronted by large expanses of space share one thing in common. They fill up the space either with really ugly big box stores, or they build large ridiculous roadside attractions. Then they fill up the space between the attractions and the box stores with gas stations and fast food restaurants. Actually the only place that they really do that is Canada and the USA, not so much the Aussies - yet.

While there is some debate as to which is the largest lobster in the world between the lobster in Shediac, NB and the one in Islamorada, FL (aka "Betsy") hands down the one in Australia wins. The Big Lobster sits at the northern entrance to Kingston in the South East of Australia and also has a cafe conveniently located underneath it. All in all, if I ever became obnoxiously wealthy (we're talking Bill Gates wealthy) I'd love to buy all three and possibly organize the world's first world's largest lobster swap. I'd probably increase the already stellar roadside attraction traffic, I'm sure. ( "Hey honey, look! It's Betsy, but she's in Kingston - Neat! Let's get a photo") I only know because when the band is on tour I'm the one tugging at sleeves saying "Oh can we please stop... there's the world's largest baseball bat over there!"

I'm sure all my European friends are shaking their heads at me. This is because space is at a premium in Europe and you can't walk 12km before running into someone's house, a town or a city of some kind. In the USA, Canada and Australia there is almost nothing but space, except in major urban centers where people would rather crush on top of one another rather than branching out. Please refer to the human density problem in Vancouver, Toronto and getting stuck in Seattle rush hour traffic. So these three powerful nations do what anyone does with extra space: we fill it up. I'm just pleased that we seem to opt for such goofy things like the world's largest Popcorn Ball (Iowa City, IA) and world's largest nickel (Sudbury, ON). The Aussies have elevated it to a new level though. They have the following spread across their vast sprawl:

The Big Banana (Coff's Harbor)

The Big Pinapple (Queensland)

The Big Buffalo (Dawin)

The Big Cow (Nambor)

The Big Elephants (Wollgoolga)

The Big Rocking Horse (Gumeracha)

The Big Koala (Victoria)

There's more too, which impresses me. I love how the Aussies call their attractions "Big" instead of "World's Largest" even though many of their attractions are quite larger than the "World's Largest". It's just the same as anytime we move into a larger apartment and all of a sudden we're confronted with this extra space and what to do with it. I think this makes me a contender in that respect for the world's largest dust bunny, but I doubt I can sell that as a tourist attraction to the 2010 Olympics crowd. But then again, they are also travelling that far to see people launch themselves off of ices chutes and to see millionaire beat the crap out of each other in ice skates, so why not try?

Little Miss Risk