Community & Business
6 November, 2026
Nyngan’s Big Bogan gains in popularity, but the Big Banana remains Australia’s top ‘Big Thing’
Nyngan’s Big Bogan statue is now well-known across the Central West, but its older cousins still capture the lion's share of interest from Australian road-trippers.
Erected in 2015 on Nyngan’s main street, the Big Bogan has quickly become a signature town drawcard. However, national online interest in the relatively young addition continues to lag behind the nation's more established tourist attractions.
Data from Google Trends shows distinct seasonal spikes in search interest in Australia’s ‘Big Things’, consistently peaking during the summer holiday months. Coffs Harbour’s Big Banana remains the undisputed standout, building on more than six decades of iconic branding.
The Big Banana attracts up to one million visitors annually, reaching 150,000 a month in peak season, which directly mirrors its online popularity dominance. Search data confirms that online interest in the Big Banana (built in 1964) far outweighs competitors such as the Big Merino (Goulburn, 1985), the Big Prawn (Ballina, 1989), and the Big Bogan (2015).
While precise visitor figures for all attractions are hard to pinpoint, Ballina welcomes around one million visitors per year, while the Big Merino recorded 1.2 million visitors in its inaugural year (1985). The Big Merino was later relocated closer to the Hume Highway in 2007 after Goulburn was bypassed.
To boost local appeal, the Big Bogan was joined by his mate ‘Rusty’ the dog in 2022. The precinct also features a photographic frame complete with smartphone cut-outs, making it easy for road-trippers to capture the statue, dog, and esky in a single frame.
Though official visitor numbers aren't tracked for the Big Bogan, it is a staple feature across online travel forums, and locals report steady foot traffic daily. The site also features an exclusive line of ‘Big Bogan’ merchandise, available only in town.
Traditional road-trip icons face fresh competition from regional silo and water tower art. While both trends share similar summer seasonality, Google Trends data reveals that broader interest in ‘Big Things’ has recently surged past search interest for ‘Silo art’.
For towns like Nyngan that host both, these dual attractions provide travellers with double the reason to stop, explore, and support the local economy, the goal behind every big idea.
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