Around the bend

Bruce Elder returns to Australia's first 'big thing', still a working plantation and highway attraction after 46 years.

The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour! Ideal stopover when the kids are ratty, the caravan is dragging and the beaches of the Gold Coast still seem so far away. It has been one of this country's iconic landmarks for nearly half a century.

The merchandising alone is clever and a little overwhelming. Visitors can still gorge themselves on a banana milkshake ($4.50), banana smoothie ($5.50), banana-crunch blizzard shake ($5.50), banana crepe ($6.95), banana split ($6.95), banana-crunch megasundae ($6.95), chocolate-coated banana ($3.50), banana fritter ($6.95), banana bread ($4.50), banana cake ($4.50), banana muffin ($4.50), banana scones ($4.50) and, if that is not enough, a bunch of 30 ''sweet big bananas'' (and they really are huge) for $7.

But wait, there's more: banana jam, banana mango chutney, banana rum butter and banana sauce (all $5.95) and banana cream ($4.95). And, for superior souvenirs, there's a banana toothpick holder, a banana keyring, a banana water pistol, a couple of banana stubbie holders, a banana tea towel, a banana-shaped pen or, wait for it, a banana holder.

You might have thought that all bananas came in the holder that nature intended. Some entrepreneur disagreed with you and has created a yellow plastic banana holder. The function? Who knows? But it does help the Big Banana make the unchallenged claim that its gift shop has shelves stacked high with ''the most banana-related products'' in the world.

Of all Australia's ''big'' attractions, nothing quite compares with the Big Banana. In 1995 it was voted ''the most bizarre and grotesque tourist attraction in the world'' in a survey of young Australian travellers. Opened in 1964, it still attracts more than 900,000 visitors each year. And, most significantly, it is recognised as Australia's first ''big'' tourist attraction and therefore can be regarded as the precursor to every ''big'' thing in the country, from Tamworth's Big Golden Guitar and Tully's Big Gumboot to Victoria's Big Worm and South Australia's unforgettable Big Lobster.

It seems appropriate that the idea for the Big Banana was dreamt up by an expatriate Californian, John Landi, who, in 1962, bought a two-hectare banana plantation north of Coffs Harbour. Two years later he set up a roadside stall to sell bananas. Inspired by the success of the Big Pineapple in Hawaii, Landi decided that a Big Banana would attract customers. He commissioned a local engineer, Alan Chapman, and builder Alan Harvey to create a 12-metre banana. When launched on December 22, 1964, it was touted as ''The Biggest Banana in the World''. It was such an immediate success that within 12 months Landi and his partner, John Enevoldson, had bought an adjoining eight hectares.

Over the years the Big Banana has had a chequered career. Landi sold his share in 1968. The Enevoldsons ran the business for the next 20 years before selling to a local businessman, Bob Johnson, who spent $30 million on a redevelopment only to see the upgraded property go into provisional liquidation in 1989. It was bought by Kevin Rubie in 1993 and has since undergone a slow process of transformation into a Gold Coast-style theme park.

A visitor could quite easily spend a day at the attraction. Modelling it on the hugely successful NSW south coast attraction, the Jamberoo Action Park, the Big Banana's management has expanded the property (there are now 13 hectares of banana plantation) and added an excellent downhill toboggan run and a huge water park with a water slide, reputedly the largest inflatable water slide in the world. It will eventually be replaced by a more permanent structure. There is also an ice-skating rink, giant bungee trampolines and trike rides around the property.