Around NSW With Andrew: Ballina

I'm sorry to say that when it comes to the towns of the mid and far north coast of NSW my impressions have been either limited or not exactly favourable. As I will discuss in latter blog entries, the towns of Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Taree, Kempsey etc etc don't exactly thrill me and fulfill me. And unlike places such as Wagga Wagga, Bathurst or Deniliquin where I have been repeatedly, some of the locations between Newcastle and the Tweed have not exactly been overrun by sightings of your correspondent. And Ballina certainly falls into this category.


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Now for me the Ballina experience can be summed up in two very succinct words. These words are "Big" and "Prawn". As shown in this delightful example of the fridge magnet art oeuvre (below), the Big Prawn at Ballina is a monument to good taste and crustaceans not seen anywhere else between Sydney and the NSW/Queensland border (admittedly there is a Big Oyster at Taree but that is both not really open now plus it's a mollusk).

My first visit to the Big Prawn was in February 2008 as I was returning from a trip to Noosa. I had seen it before on TV, and as I was heading south along the truly decrepit Pacific Highway in this part of the world my eyes were peeled for the oversized cement seafood delicacy. Then, just as I thought I may have missed it, on the south side it loomed like a Brobdingnagian Shrimp. And to my delight there was a decent crowd there.

Thankfully the town fathers of Ballina have decided to install not just a seafood takeway underneath the mandibles of the Big Prawn, they have also installed a well stocked and dare I say exquisitelly stocked souvenier shop which was literally teeming with old age pensioner tourists as I walked through its welcoming doors. Between fridge magnets, key rings, local jams and other foods, knitted goods, postcards and a veritable cornucopeia of trinkets and Ballina-focused goodies the sound of twittering oldies and a ringing cash register kept me from falling asleep from the journey's tedium.

Of course a town isn't defined by its local "big..." thing. As much as Marulan might like to be known for its now sadly defunct big pavlova, or Robertson for the desolated desiree spud made from cement in its district, neither has a claim to fame dependent on their local monolith. Ballina is the same. Well, maybe not 100%. It is a decent sized regional centre which reminds me of a larger version of Ulladulla, and compares reasonably favourably with other far north coast towns (i.e. Byron Bay and Lismore) in that I wouldn't mind visiting again and for longer. The fridge magnet art is alive and well there, which is always a big plus for me. As I have alluded to the Pacific Highway still goes through town which is not entirely a bad thing (I'm not always a fan of the bypass, which removes your willingness to come face to face with a regional or rural town's real face, instead of highway service centres). On the other hand Ballina suffers as a destination because it doesn't lend itself to an overnight stop on the road between Sydney and Brisbane. Maybe with more visits I'll get a better handle on the place. So...watch this space!
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