Friday Funny: Australia's Shittest Big Things

[El Presidente]

 

A case of fact being stranger than fiction 

.......and I never new "Shittest" was a word 

Does your country have a fixation with "Big things being built  in small towns?"  

 

'Australia's S***test Big Things' shortlist a joke to some, but not everyone's laughing

By Madison Snow, Teri Campbell, Alexander Darling, and Gillian Aeria

Posted 18h ago18 hours ago

The Big Potato in Robertson, New South Wales, is in the competition's top four. (Supplied: Wikipedia)

 

Australia is famous for its "big things", and the 230-or-so novelty landmarks can certainly divide opinion.

Back to ruffle some feathers, the satirists from Shit Towns of Australia have put it to a vote and compiled a shortlist of what people believe are the most unusual or underwhelming "big things".

Some people reckon the "shittest" poll is a bit of fun that helps draw attention to their towns; others take exception to being spoken about in such unflattering terms. 

Kalgoorlie no stranger to the competition

Local residents campaigned for Kalgoorlie-Boulder to win the title of Australia's Shit Town of the Year 2019.(ABC Goldfields: Madison Snow )

The city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is well known by some of the 560,000 followers of Shit Towns of Australia's Facebook page, where polls are conducted to decide which town is the nation's worst.

The competition caused division in the Goldfields city in 2019 when it was in the running to take the national title of "Shit town of the Year".

A group of local residents saw the competition as an opportunity to attract tourism and campaigned for people to vote for Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

However, the city's mayor, John Bowler, was concerned the attention would deter people from moving to the town amid a worker shortage and asked people not to engage with the competition.

The 2019 title was taken out by Logan in Queensland, but Kalgoorlie has been named "WA's Shittest Town" for the past three years.

The 'shittest' shortlist

• The Big Potato – Robertson, NSW
• The Giant Koala – Dadswells Bridge, Victoria
• Giant Captain James Cook – Mount Molloy, Queensland
• The World's Tallest Bin – Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA

It's now in the running for "Australia's Shittest Big Things" after thousands nominated  its self-proclaimed World's Tallest Bin, which sits at the top of the main street on a patch of red dirt known as World's Tallest Bin Park.

The bin is a long piece of pipe standing eight metres tall.

According to local historian Tim Moore, it was installed in the early 1980s during a campaign to clean up Australia.

While he remembered throwing cans into it as a kid, Mr Moore said there was not much else to it.

Creators receive death threats 

Like the bin, Geoff Rissole — who co-created the "shittest" competitions with Rick Furphy — also has a self-appointed title as an expert in sociology, travel and culture, which he claimed after the pair's Shit Towns books, blogs and social media page took off.

Access into The Big Potato was blocked after visitors began using it as a toilet.(Supplied: TripAdvisor)

Mr Rissole is from New Zealand but said he and Mr Furphy had lived and travelled extensively in Australia.  

"[We] found that Aussies and Kiwis share a similar self-deprecating sense of humour," he said.

He draws inspiration from his hometown across the pond, which he declined to name due to the backlash from fellow residents.

"We periodically receive death threats from humourless man-babies, plus locals have begged us not to tell anyone because they don't want to be associated with us," he said.

The Big Merino at Goulburn.(Supplied: Wikipedia)

Mr Rissole said his top pick for the new category was the Big Merino in Goulburn, New South Wales, but it failed to make the final cut.

"It's supposed to be a giant ram but it doesn't really look like a sheep," he said.

"It looks like it was designed by someone who's had a sheep described to them over the phone, rather than ever actually having any interactions with the animal itself."

Mr Rissole said he was surprised the bin was in the top four but appreciated the lack of consideration into what it represented.

"Most big things will be promoting some aspects of the town, like an industry or some sort of tourist attraction.

"Kalgoorlie has gone, 'Nup! Just a giant bin, that's what we're about'."

This statue of Captain Cook was a controversial sight in Cairns for 50 years.(ABC Far North: Holly Richardson)

Captain Cook bought for $1

He said the big bin was tracking well among voters, alongside the controversial "Nazi-saluting" Captain James Cook which stood a whopping eight metres high in the tropical Queensland city of Cairns for 50 years.

The statue was considered offensive and was sold for $1 to a private buyer who relocated it to their property in Mount Molloy this year.

The Captain Cook statue in Cairns has been relocated to a private property.(ABC Far North: Mark Rigby)

Mr Rissole said another semi-finalist, the Big Potato, had a less political and more unhygienic kind of controversy surrounding it.

"You used to be able to go inside it, but they had to shut it recently because people were using it as a bathroom," he said.

"I don't know whether that's going to propel it to the top, but it's pretty bad."

Not everyone thinks it's funny

While Mr Rissole said the competition was intended to be a bit of a laugh, the owner of the Giant Koala, Patricia Crute, did not think it was funny.

Ms Crute's daughter made her aware of the fact the koala, which is actually a gift shop along the Western Highway in Dadswells Bridge in western Victoria, had made the shortlist.

The owner of the Giant Koala, in Dadswell Bridge, says she is offended by the competition. (ABC Wimmera: Alexander Darling)

She said she was offended by the caption which depicts the koala as "a gigantic red-eyed, hairy-eared replica of the only creature with more chlamydia than a local youth".

"I was a bit disgusted actually by the comments that were put on there, because it's not like that at all," Ms Crute said.

"It's a tourist attraction that everybody admires."

Ms Crute said there was a boost in visitors to the koala after it was voted "Australia's Best Big Thing" in another online competition a few years ago.

Are Australia's 'big things' still relevant?

From giant bananas to huge prawns, there are more than 150 "big things" scattered across Australia and, perhaps surprisingly, some small towns are still building them.

Read more

But she wasn't sure winning the title of "Australia's Shittest Big Thing" would have the same impact.

"Whether they come to make fun of our koala, I don't know," she said.

But like Kalgoorlie locals a few years back, Grampians Tourism chief executive Mark Sleeman believes the light-hearted competition is a good thing for the region.

 "This is a whole lot of fun and just helps profile our region and get our destination front of mind," he said.

 "We've got the koala and I'm happy to stand by that.

"Whether it's the shittiest, the biggest or the loudest, we'll own it as it gets people talking about our region."

[El Presidente]

The Aussie town of Rockhampton "goes nuts' over it's  Bull. 

 

 

 

[SpecialK]

16 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

 

The owner of the Giant Koala, in Dadswell Bridge, says she is offended by the competition. (ABC Wimmera: Alexander Darling)

She said she was offended by the caption which depicts the koala as "a gigantic red-eyed, hairy-eared replica of the only creature with more chlamydia than a local youth".

Now that's funny  ..... 

16 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

 

 

 

[MoeFOH]

Look at this big fella... he's a bewdy! 

[GoodStix]

Captain Cook... whew!  I feared that was our pirate Pres 😉

[El Presidente]

Some people drive out to Kilcoy to see the statue of "The Yowie" 

Some people are just born stupid.

.....a Yowie is australias bigfoot. 

 

 

Yowie sightings normally occur after 10PM when the Exchange Hotel closes. 

 

[Nevrknow]

Timing is everything. I am literally staying 2 miles from the “Bigfoot” museum in GA.

Dont judge, they pay me to be here for awhile. 😂

[El Presidente]

just up the highway from us. 

 

[El Presidente]

 

Let's not forget larry the Lobster

 

[El Presidente]

...or the Big Boxing Croc at Humpty Doo. 

....yes we have a town called Humpty Doo

 

[Nevrknow]

7 hours ago, El Presidente said:

just up the highway from us. 

 

That close? Come on. You have a pic to prove you were there SOMEWHERE! 

And yes I have to go get a pic of me at the Bigfoot Museum. The grandkids are begging. And we know we can't turn them down.

I hate my life. 😂

[Ken Gargett]

7 hours ago, El Presidente said:

just up the highway from us. 

first of all, how much spare time to you have!!!

secondly, shittest. just because someone with minimal education includes it in a piece in a paper, does not make it a word. 

next, the pineapple was sold. one of my mates involved. it is now a rum distillery - nil desperandum. the first release was very good. 

[El Presidente]

Just now, Ken Gargett said:

 

secondly, shittest. just because someone with minimal education includes it in a piece in a paper, does not make it a word. 

 

 

If it is on ABC News.....it's a word 

[Chas.Alpha]

Unfortunately, I live in Florida. We invented trashy attractions...😔

[Ken Gargett]

6 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

 

If it is on ABC News.....it's a word 

may be when we were young. these days, most of the dross they have as reporters can even pronounce real words. lord help us if they are making up new ones. 

[Chucko8]

Got to love the Big Prawn in Ballina.

[Nevrknow]

36 minutes ago, Chas.Alpha said:

Unfortunately, I live in Florida. We invented trashy attractions...😔

We found them all! My grandkids love this kind of stuff.

[yossie]

Aussie resembles like Osaka.

 

[Fuzz]

 

[Chas.Alpha]

7 hours ago, El Presidente said:

...or the Big Boxing Croc at Humpty Doo. 

....yes we have a town called Humpty Doo

Debbie wants a wallaby...

[cgoodrich]

Farnham Colossi in Unger, West Virginia.

[Nevrknow]

3 hours ago, cgoodrich said:

Farnham Colossi in Unger, West Virginia.

Yep, looks like west virginia to me. I can't lie. She was hot.

[El Presidente]

I love this as a man cave design