Australians are well-known for their sense of humor when it comes to
tourist attraction. Some of their quirkiest tourist attractions actually
started out as a bit of a joke.
From teddy bears and garden gnomes planted in fun, which have turned into thriving colonies, to a submarine in an inland park.
Submarine In An Inland Park
A
rural Australian park is the last place you would expect to find a
submarine. Yet the HMAS Otway is a major tourist attraction in the New
South Wales town of Holbrook. The town was renamed in 1915 after their
resident war hero, Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, who was the first
submariner to receive the Victoria Cross (VC) during World War I.
Mad Max 2 Museum
We
all have our favorite movies. Some of us can even become a little
over-passionate, collecting memorabilia and watching reruns. However,
one man’s passion saw him move halfway around the world to open a museum
in the most unlikely place.
Scenes from the earlier Mad Max
movies were shot in the remote New South Wales outback near the sparsely
populated town of Silverton. (The 2016 Australian census showed that
the town had a population of just 50.)
Utes In The Paddock
The
Holden Ute is a true Australian icon. The work vehicle can be found all
over rural Australia. The outback town of Condobolin has a unique
outdoor art gallery depicting well-known Australian icons, all using the
Holden Ute as its medium.
A number of years ago, a local
landholder decided to turn a rusty old Ute into an artwork. Artists were
then invited to repurpose rusty car bodies into art forms, which
attract many tourists to the district each year. Twenty cars are upended
or suspended at precarious angles to depict the life and characters of
the Australian bush.
Here, you will see Australian identities
such as Clancy of the Overflow and Dame Edna Everage sitting on a
traditional Australian “dunny.” Aussie icons represented include a
larger-than-life bottle of Bundaberg Rum and a mammoth jar of vegemite.
The
display was originally installed on a remote property 30 kilometers (19
mi) from Condobolin but has since been moved to the outskirts of the
town, where it is more accessible to tourists.
Gnomesville
A
cheeky community protest over proposed council roadworks has snowballed
into a quirky tourist attraction for the West Australian town of
Wellington Mill.
When the council announced controversial
plans to construct a roundabout in 1995, a couple of cheeky residents
“claimed the plot” by placing a couple of garden gnomes on the proposed
site as a bit of a joke. The joke soon spread, and the gnomes quickly
multiplied. Today, there are an estimated 5,000 gnomes residing in
“Gnomesville,” which has become an unlikely tourist attraction.
Here,
you will find gnomes enjoying just about every recreational activity,
from fishing to music to sporting matches. Visitors are invited to add
their own gnome to the growing collection, as long it is marked with
where it came from.
There’s A Bear In There!
A
bend in the long, winding highway linking inland New South Wales with
the South Coast is perhaps the last place you would expect to find a
children’s tourist attraction.
Like many of Australia’s quirkier
attractions, Pooh Bear’s Corner was established through one individual’s
imagination and eventually took off.
A local family from
Crookwell spotted a disused cave halfway down Clyde Mountain on their
frequent trips to the coast in the early 1970s. The parents concocted
the story that the cave was, in fact, home to A.A. Milne’s
Winnie-the-Pooh for the amusement of their children.
They soon
began leaving stuffed bears and handwritten signs at the spot on their
journey down the mountain. The idea soon caught on, and others began
leaving bears at the site, which became known as Pooh Bear’s Corner.
Eventually, the local council caught onto the idea, erecting a permanent
sign at the attraction.
Children and kids at heart still look
out for the teddy bears congregating in Pooh’s cave on their way down
Clyde Mountain today.
