In their purest form, big things serve simply to put a smile on the face of passers-by and allow overseas tourists a snapshot of Australian culture to share with folks back home.

Visitors to our shores may scratch their heads while contemplating a huge prawn dominating a Ballina street or a giant worm undulating across a Gippsland field.

But they can be equally daunted by a collective consciousness that drives a people to worship a horse race, unite under the expression “That’s going straight to the pool room”, or aspire to make a pilgrimage to Bathurst to watch cars crash.

Australians embrace the off-beat like no other – the weirder the better. 

We laugh at ourselves and many of us take pride in how far we’ve moved past staid British beginnings.

We should be proud to belong to a nation that has created a village of 10,000 garden gnomes. 

We should celebrate the giant concrete and fibreglass fruit, fish, Bogan and boots.

With a country as big as ours, with big deserts, big dry lakes, big long roads, big reefs, big rocks and big holes in the ground, it is natural that we decorate our towns with the biggest things we can get past council.

These big things bring together locales by creating a common symbol that defines an identity and unites residents in salute or scorn.

So – what symbol would define Maitland?   Log on to maitlandmercury.com.au and have your say. 

Thornton Ugg boots make list for Big Things tour | PHOTOS, MAP