The Big Banana Opens at Coffs Harbour in 1964
The Big Banana officially opened on December 22, 1964, beside John Landi’s roadside banana stall. Its design began with a real banana cut into forty sections, turning a small agricultural product into a conspicuous travel landmark.
A reason for motorists to stop
In 1964 John Landi wanted passing motorists to notice his roadside banana business at Coffs Harbour, on the New South Wales coast. The attraction’s official history says that he had heard of a large pineapple attraction in Hawaii. His solution was to make the local product impossible to overlook. A giant banana would serve as a recognizable object at road speed, inviting travelers to stop where a conventional stall might be passed without a second glance.
From fruit to construction plans
Local engineer Alan Chapman developed the design with an unusually direct model. According to the business’s account, he selected an attractive banana and cut it into forty pieces, using its sections to develop construction plans. Builder Alan Harvey began work in September 1964. The thirteen-meter landmark officially opened on December 22, meeting the ambition to finish before Christmas. The exact opening date is supported; the individual stages of the design process are not assigned invented calendar days.
The appeal of an oversized object
The banana illustrates a distinctive relationship between roads, agriculture and tourism. Enlarging a familiar product makes it both an advertisement and a destination in its own right. ABC’s discussion of Australian Big Things describes giant sculptures celebrating industries, regional produce, wildlife and local history. Their attraction can be immediate and playful: travelers recognize the object, enjoy the change in scale, and gain a reason to spend time in a place they might otherwise cross quickly.
A landmark that outgrew its stall
The business subsequently expanded with additional plantation land, retail facilities and visitor attractions. Those later developments should not be projected backward into the opening scene of 1964. Descriptions of the banana as Australia’s first Big Thing are common in the attraction’s own account and public reporting, although broad priority claims depend on how the category is defined. The illustration presents an imagined early roadside setting, without the modern amusement-park facilities that became associated with the site later.
Waltzing Matilda
Music by any Means
A modern instrumental version of an Australian bush ballad gives the roadside scene a regional musical connection. This recording was not made at the 1964 opening.
Listen on SoundCloud ↗Follow the evidence.
- The Big Banana: official history ↗
- ABC: Australia’s roadside Big Things ↗
- Attached recording on SoundCloud ↗
AI-assisted writing, with institutional and primary sources. Illustration is a reconstruction, not an archival photograph. Published November 6, 2026; updated November 6, 2026. Our approach
