Big Banana
The Big Banana is a tourist attraction and amusement park in the city of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. The grounds of the park are set amongst a banana plantation, featuring a large walk-through banana. Built in 1964, it was one of Australia's first Big Things. Other attractions include a downhill toboggan ride, ice skating rink, a water park and the World of Bananas educational experience. Plantation tours are also available. On the evening of Australia Day 2014, a disused scenic lookout attraction was destroyed by fire. In keeping with the plantation theme, banana-related  products are shown or sold in the park which also has a souvenir shop and restaurant. In January 2014, during the peak tourist season the Big Banana received close to 150,000 visitors. The Big Banana has been a family owned business since it was open by Patrick Hughes in 1964. The original Big Banana has been copied by the Big Bananas at Carnarvon, Western Australia. In 2011, "Huffington Post" included the Big Banana in their list of the "Top 10 Pieces of Folly Architecture." Attractions. Current. Along with the Big Banana which is 15m long, featuring the Racer 82 m slide, the site includes laser tag, mini golf, ice skating rink, a theatre providing an educational experience, and a toboggan ride and a water park. Steve McEwan's Reptile World is a reptile zoo located at the Big Banana park which allows visitors some interaction with some of the reptiles there and is also acts as an education centre about reptiles to the visiting public. Species kept include black-headed python, brown tree snake, carpet python, central bearded dragon, common death adder, common tree snake, eastern brown snake, eastern long-neck turtle, eastern short-necked turtle, eastern water dragon , frill-neck lizard, inland taipan (fierce snake), lace monitor, mulga snake (king brown), red-bellied black snake, saltwater crocodile, small-blotched python and tiger snake. Former. The park featured three scenic monorail sets driven on a two beam track. The monorail's track linked display buildings and transported visitors up the steep slope of the plantation. In 2005, a broken down set was being pushed by one of the two other sets to a maintenance shed for repairs when the coupling system failed and the broken down set ploughed into the lagoon within the park. The track passed by a  lagoon that featured an animatronic bunyip, which was shut off in 2005 due to budget constraints. Much of the track remains throughout the park and plantations while the two car sets that remained have been left unattended on tracks each near a disused buildings. Postage stamps. Australia Post issued a set of 50c postage stamps in 2007 commemorating big things, including the Big Banana. The other big thing stamps were: