Greg Barila: Why South Australia can’t afford to lose Larry the Lobster

A NATION’S greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. A state’s greatness is measured by how it treats its Big Things — on the latter score, SA should hang its head in shame.

The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

I THINK it was Mahatma Gandhi who once famously said that “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members”.

Well, a state’s greatness is measured by how it treats its “big things” (I said that), and on that count, South Australia has been a dismal failure.

Berri’s Big Orange has run out of juice; the Port Wakefield Rd cockroach was almost squashed and now, one of SA’s most cherished “big things”, Larry the Lobster, is at risk of being bisque.

The Big Lobster (a crayfish, actually) has been a feature of the small South East town of Kingston for nearly 40 years, a friendly checkpoint for holidaying mums and dads to stretch the legs while the kids climb on Larry’s fibreglass exoskeleton and pose for happy snaps.

But now, after standing sentinel on the Princes Highway since 1979, Larry has become “dangerous and dilapidated” and will be demolished if the owners can’t raise tens of thousands of dollars to restore him.

Aussie first: The giant Scotsman in front of Scotty’s motel kicked off Australia’s obsession with Big Things. Photo: Simon Cross

“He’s very badly deteriorated,” co-owner Frances Curkpatrick told reporters. “People come down this way to see him and it’s really embarrassing because he’s in a really bad condition. He’s getting to the danger stage.

“If he doesn’t get the work done, he has to come down.”

So we might have to say ‘so long, Larry’. But what’s the Big deal?

Reader (and true patriot) Deb Bunt summed it up on The Advertiser’s Facebook page: “It’s un-Australian to destroy a big thing!”

Fellow contributor Teresa saw it as just another example of a state in decline.

“No more Big Orange, Larry is under threat, Greenhills (Adventure Park) is closing next year for more housing ... There’s not much left in the way of family attractions ... very disappointing.”

PODCAST: Meet the Adelaide artist who inspired Australia's obsession with Big Things.

It’s easy to be flippant about something as hokey as a fibreglass crustacean. But in so many small and otherwise unremarkable towns, a gimmick may be the difference between a busload of tourists deciding to pull up and toss a few dollars into the local economy and trucking on to someplace more exotic.

And if there’s one state that needs to be doing all it can to boost the economy, you’re standing in it.

But economic benefits aside, South Australia has a reputation here to think about and right now it is in tatters.

Not only does SA boast some of the best Big Things in the country, we actually started the trend when we erected Australia’s FIRST big thing — a bloody great Scotsman at a hotel in Medindie in 1963!

We even beat the Big Banana by a full year!

The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

Frances Curkpatrick has started a crowd-funding campaign to raise enough money to save her languishing lobster and if you call yourself a South Australian you’ll send a few dollars her way.

We lost the Grand Prix, Holden’s packing it in, the Vics want to get their dirty mitts on the TDU, and now we want to relinquish our title as the state that showed the nation how to think big.

If SA loses Larry the Lobster, the Premier will have no choice but to declare it a day of mornay.

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