This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
19.87771° S, 147.68502° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
A giant pumpkin and a giant watermelon, side by side on the Bruce Highway.
Paired objects are unusual. Where a second Big Thing exists in this catalogue it is normally elsewhere in the town, or at a different business, or added years later – Bowen's mini mango, Kingaroy's three peanuts, Maleny's cheese wedge and milk can. Two crops presented together as a single roadside stop is a different proposition: not one landmark plus an afterthought, but a display of what the district grows.
And Gumlu does grow both. This is Burdekin country, some of the most productive irrigated horticulture in Australia, drawing on the Burdekin River and a very large groundwater system. Melons and pumpkins are genuine commercial crops here, trucked south through the winter when southern growers cannot produce, and the district supplies a substantial share of the national market in season.
That is what makes the pair honest. A single fruit on a highway is a claim; two, chosen because they are what the trucks are carrying, is closer to a statement of fact.
Gumlu is a small settlement rather than a town – the highway, farms, and not much else – between Bowen and Ayr on a stretch where the road runs through cane and vegetable country.
As for its size, its construction, a date and the person responsible – nothing.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
