Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
able to start to educate the tourist in local foods and especially the growing
of pineapples.
A farmer in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand has created a similar icon
tourist attraction based around the Big Kiwi, a commonly grown fruit in that
area.
Other 'icon' food statues include the Big Banana, which was erected in
1964 in Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, The Big Lobster at Kingston,
South Australia, and Giant Rams at Goulburn, New South Wales and at
Wagin, Western Australia.
You will see from this list that Australia is a Mecca for 'icon' statues and
the postal service even produced a series of stamps on them in 2007.
World news picked up on the fact that the Big Mango in Bowen in
Queensland, Australia was removed overnight in February 2014 as a guer-
rilla marketing tactic by the fast food chain Nandos; an example of how
'loved' this type of icon can become in communities.
Special mention should be made of the Gillie. This is where an icon can
make a difference. The Giant Gillie is on a sign at Kargalin in the Western
Australian wheat belt. This community is so small that if you Google the
name it does not come up. There are about three properties there with three
farming families, but each year they have Gillie racing. Gillies are a crust-
acean reared by one of the farmers as a delicacy and each year they have a
race to attract tourists. This shows how 'out of the box' thinking in a small
remote community can provide an event each year to attract tourists off the
beaten track.
Traditional Crafts, Foods and Cooking Techniques
Till St Swithin's Day be past. The apples be not fit to taste.
Notes and Queries 1870
The desire to preserve traditional crafts is not a new trend. Herbert. L. Edlin
wrote
Woodland Crafts in Britain
17
in 1949 with the aim of keeping alive the
old traditional crafts of Britain. Many festivals now include demonstrations
and exhibitions of the old crafts and they have become a tourist attraction in
their own right.
Make tradition a tourist attraction
Many tourists visit Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire in the UK to view
Shakespeare's birthplace. Not far from his birthplace is Mary Arden's Farm.
Mary Arden was William's mother. This has given the charity that operates
the birthplace an opportunity to develop a Tudor farm, which is open from
March until November and provides a wide range of tourist activities. Team
members dress in Tudor clothes and the farm includes rare farm breeds,
birds of prey and Tudor entertainments.
