Land of the giants

Was browsing through old pics and noticed a recurring theme. Every place we've visited seems to have a giant something or other to call its own. There's the giant mango in Bowen, the giant crab on the road to Cairns, the giant brolga at the entrance to Townsville, the giant banana in Mackay, the giant Ned Kelly in Glen Rowan and the giant galah in the middle of the Nullabor. What's with that, I wonder? Would make an interesting holiday (worthy of the Griswalds) to travel around Australia photographing every giant this or that you could find. I wonder if Darwin has a giant sea wasp? Or if Canberra has a giant politician? There you go! A giant Tony Abbott in his giant budgie smugglers! (ewwww)

Ned's not dead

When we lived in Albury, we took a day trip to the town of Glenrowan, the stamping ground of the legendary Ned Kelly. As well as the obligatory tea house and souvenir store, there was a quaint little place which offered an animated reenactment of the famous Kelly showdown. We seemed to be the only tourists that day and were welcomed by a strange old bloke with a beaming smile. He sat us down in a darkened room and the show began. It consisted of a series of lifesize dummies in various poses, which, through the miracle of modern technology, had laser images of talking faces projected onto their heads. It was kind of eerie in a fly-blown sort of way. Then suddenly, half way through, the whole thing ground to a halt. The old bloke emerged from the shadows like the Wizard of Oz and started tinkering with what looked like a giant fuse box, all the while apologising profusely and swearing this never happened usually. We tried politely not to titter while we scuffed our feet and waited and waited. Eventually the show began again and ground to its creaking climax and we emerged back into the sunlight. I'm not sure what tourists would make of it, but then, the story of a guy with a bucket on his head is pretty bizarre to begin with, so they probably came away, as we did, feeling they had witnessed something uniquely Australian.