Szilvia GombolaThe Big Bucket
May 6th 2007 11:58
There are a lot of ‘big’ things in Australia. From the Big Banana and Pineapple to the Big Gumboot, Merino, Prawn, Cod, and so on and so on.
Australia’s ‘big’ culture has its own iconic status and is often the highlight of any road trip, along with the accompanying souvenir ruler that comes with a visit to one of these landmarks.
Of all the ‘big’ things in this big country (estimated at more than 145), some are well documented, some not so.
I recently stumbled across The Big Bucket in the Queensland mining town of Moranbah, which most definitely falls into the later category of big things. I had never heard of it, which is not that surprising considering it is in the middle of nowhere (even though that is often a common characteristic of big things).
Stumbled is probably not the right word for discovering The Big Bucket, unless you are a giant. Because The Big Bucket is, well… big. It is also impossible to miss as it is painted bright red and stands proudly at the entrance to the town of Moranbah in central Queensland.
The Big Bucket, which has rested at Moranbah’s Grovenor Creek Apex Park since 1999, pays tribute to the coal mining industry that sustains everyone and everything in these parts and is also Moranbah’s only legitimate tourist attraction.
Before its new life as a tourist attraction, the bucket was a fully operational piece of mining machinery known as Dragline Bucket No 19. It is valued at $200,000 but was donated by one of the nearby mines to the local council for the princely sum of $1.
Did I mention that it is big? Six metres high and 22.9 tonnes, in fact. But this is no overblown big thing. This is the actual size of the dragline buckets that scrape coal out of the ground around here.
Maybe The Big Bucket is Australia’s only ‘big’ thing that is to scale (or maybe that fact alone disqualifies it from being a true ‘big’ thing). Unless there really are 12-metre high pineapples or 11-metre long bananas out there.
Australia’s ‘big’ culture has its own iconic status and is often the highlight of any road trip, along with the accompanying souvenir ruler that comes with a visit to one of these landmarks.
Of all the ‘big’ things in this big country (estimated at more than 145), some are well documented, some not so.
I recently stumbled across The Big Bucket in the Queensland mining town of Moranbah, which most definitely falls into the later category of big things. I had never heard of it, which is not that surprising considering it is in the middle of nowhere (even though that is often a common characteristic of big things).
The Big Bucket, which has rested at Moranbah’s Grovenor Creek Apex Park since 1999, pays tribute to the coal mining industry that sustains everyone and everything in these parts and is also Moranbah’s only legitimate tourist attraction.
Before its new life as a tourist attraction, the bucket was a fully operational piece of mining machinery known as Dragline Bucket No 19. It is valued at $200,000 but was donated by one of the nearby mines to the local council for the princely sum of $1.
Did I mention that it is big? Six metres high and 22.9 tonnes, in fact. But this is no overblown big thing. This is the actual size of the dragline buckets that scrape coal out of the ground around here.
Maybe The Big Bucket is Australia’s only ‘big’ thing that is to scale (or maybe that fact alone disqualifies it from being a true ‘big’ thing). Unless there really are 12-metre high pineapples or 11-metre long bananas out there.
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