Even if it’s hard to say exactly why Australia’s craze for giant objects began, it is possible to say where. When it landed in Coffs Harbour in 1964, Alan Chapman’s Big Banana was a sensation.

The 40ft monument to fruit designed by Chapman even drew royalty. “The people just came in hordes; the car park wasn’t big enough, the shop wasn’t big enough, and we didn’t have enough people working in the shop,” said its co-developer John Enevoldson in a 1991 documentary.

Still, all the big things appeared to have been a hit with locals and tourists. And so, in an attempt to lure visitors from overseas, particularly Britons who like gardening, a tiny town in the Outback called Narrabri Shire is now proposing to add a giant slug to the list of landmarks.

It is no ordinary slug, however. The statue, which could be 65ft long, will represent the endangered Mount Kaputar pink slug, found only on Mount Kaputar, the remnant of an extinct volcano east of Narrabri in northern New South Wales.

Read the full story at The Times