The Story of The Big Cherry
The Big Cherry in Wyuna, Victoria is an oversized sculpture of a cherry wearing dark sunglasses, white gloves and a huge smile. But despite the thumbs-up gesture on its left hand and the conspicuous smile, the Big Cherry has gone through tough times in recent years.
Owned by Joseph Campanelli of the ‘Big Cherry’ farm and fruit shop in the rural locality of Wyuna, the farm almost shut down in 2019 due to a lack of enough water to support farmers in the region. As reported by ABC News, Mr Campanelli revealed that the rising water prices made it almost impossible for him and many other farmers in the region to continue farming.
The situation was reportedly so dire, Mr Campanelli uprooted and bulldozed about 3500 cherry trees. And that’s not all; he even considered selling his property, which also serves as the home of the Big Cherry sculpture.
The massive sculpture was built to bring attention to the cherry farm in its heydays and celebrate cherry farming in the region. For many years, the entire Goulburn Valley region was known as ‘Victoria’s fruit bowl.’ But now, things seem to have recently changed thanks to water scarcity, a huge challenge facing fruit farmers in the region.
Other Cherry-Themed Big Things of Australia
Aside from the sad story of the Big Cherry in Wyuna, cherries are well-represented in the list of Big Things of Australia. Here are examples of other cherry-themed Big Things you need to know about:
- The Big Cherries in Young, New South Wales
- The Big Cherry in Latrobe, Tasmania
- The Big Cherry in Glenrowan (was removed in 2011)
Although it’s unclear whether the Big Cherry fruit farm has completely shut down, we genuinely hope that the Big Cherry has found the happiness it deserves.
