The Big Smoke

BY Claire Wiltshire

We Aussies have always had an oddly kitsch obsession with ‘big things’. The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour and the Big Pineapples (there are two competing for the title of original BP) define our grand sensibilities in taste and decorum. There’s no better way to get a town like Gympie on the map. Some, like the big fruits, symbolise the primary industry of a place, whereas others, like the unforgettable Big Guitar in Tamworth, epitomise the intrinsically Australian country music ethos of the town. The 12-metre golden guitar encapsulates the essence of its larger-than-life country music festival, when streets come alive with cowboy hats and flannel shirts.

But there’s no tourist attraction so irreverent and underrated as the ‘big thing’ from my very own home town – Myrtleford. In this sleepy alpine hamlet, ignored by many a snow bunny making their way up to Hotham or Falls Creek, lies the biggest secret for miles. Myrtleford’s (wait for it) Big Cigarette proudly celebrates the ultra-un-PC industry that keeps the surrounding community afloat.

The influx of European immigrants after WWII saw a new crop sweep through northeast Victoria. In a township of 8000, the tobacco industry is integral, with 265 families directly involved in growing the dirty weed and up to 700 seasonal workers flooding the area during the growing and picking season.

While Myrtleford thrives on tobacco, several other local industries follow in the distasteful footsteps of the nicotine demon. It is famed for producing beer and wine and also for cutting down trees and turning them into dunny paper. The annual Hops, Timber and Tobacco Festival is always a highlight. Each year wine makers, hop-farmers and tree-fellers come together to celebrate in medieval carnival style. “Smokin’, drinkin’, cuttin’ down trees” goes a local anthem (not really, I just made that bit up). The celebration culminates in the crowning of a festival princess – an appropriately good-looking teenage ambassador for alcohol and tobacco.

Unlike many a ‘big thing’, the Big Cigarette is not completely superfluous. The pipe functions as the exhaust to a large tobacco threshing facility at the Tobacco Co-Operative of Victoria headquarters. Standing at a staggering 25 metres, this simple example of design came about as a chance observation when an air porthole in production ended up looking like a durry.

All credit goes to TCV General Manager John Moore. “I had the idea to make it look like a cigarette, given that it had to be painted white. I phoned the guys and asked if anyone smoked. They did, so I asked them to paint the top to look like the corking around a cigarette. When the two sections were connected it looked just like the real thing.”

When a town is so proud of its unsavoury line of business, it deserves recognition. So if you’re ever heading up the mountain way, take a little detour around Myrtleford and snap off a memorable pic of your mate standing alongside a great big cig. It’d be bloody un-Australian not to.