This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 35.8891° S, 145.5746° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The strawberry went up in February 2005 because the market was being bombarded with squillions of strawberries.
That is the business's own phrasing, and it explains the whole enterprise. Faced with an oversupplied fresh market, the operators looked for ways to add value – more products, researched and developed – and built new premises on the old Koonoomoo school site in the township. The giant strawberry followed, erected to further endorse the business's strawberry status.
It worked to an extent that clearly surprised them. By 2018 the Big Strawberry was expanding to cater for families visiting in the thousands, adding a larger eating space, an indoor playground, a production viewing area, an education area and a children's party room.
The diversification has continued past strawberries. The owners bought an avocado farm to supply the business with local fruit and have been researching ways to add value to avocados, with a first batch of avocado wine about to be bottled.
That is a genuinely interesting arc for a Big Thing to sit at the centre of. Most oversized objects advertise an existing business. This one was built as part of a deliberate strategy to escape a commodity price problem, and the value-adding logic that produced it has since produced a tourist complex and, apparently, avocado wine.
The Royal Australian Mint featured the Big Strawberry on a 2025 one-dollar coin in its Aussie Big Things series – the same series that carries the Big Galah at Kimba.
Koonoomoo is on the Goulburn Valley Highway near the Murray.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
The operator remains active seven days a week and explicitly promotes the giant strawberry as a photo attraction, with cafe, playground and visitor facilities.
ACCESS
Navigate to The Big Strawberry at 7034 Goulburn Valley Highway and use its car, coach or caravan parking.
