AusLeisure

After several years of uncertainty the owners of The Big Pineapple attraction on the Sunshine Coast are planning revitalise the tourism icon.

After several changes of ownership, numbers visiting the heritage-listed tourist attraction have declined in recent years.

However, its current owners want to return the famous ‘Big Thing’ as a regional attraction with  

plans to redevelop the 162-hectare site to potentially include a family fun park, glamping sites, an holiday park, walking trails and outdoor sport and recreation facilities.

Having repaired the 16-metre high Big Pineapple structure, co-owner Peter Kendall said the vision was to restore and sustain the profile of the Big Pineapple after years of uncertainty.

Kendall told the ABC “what we want to do is make a food-based and eco-tourism-based destination that incorporates the existing big pineapple, but adds other things ... and has outlets for local produce.

“There's rainforest on the land that would lend itself to eco-walks (and) we've talked about things like zip lining."

Kendall said the Big Pineapple's annual music festival would be retained, as would the animal hospital and train, but he ruled out the possibility the land would be used for housing development.

He added “it's not in keeping with what we want to do; I don't think the council would be supportive and I don't think the community would be supportive (of housing).

"It really remains to be seen what the community is supportive of and also what we can find operators to do.

“It's very suitable for a theme park of some description as well but theme parks are typically run by large professional operators.

"So if an operator came forward and had a desire to build some sort of theme park there, we'd certainly been keen to do that."

Kendall believes that visitors are looking for a different experience than in the Big Pineapple's peak during the 1980s when Princess Diana and Prince Charles paid a visit during a Royal tour.

He concluded “we're not aiming to recreate what it was like in 1988. It simply won't work.

"Kids these days have different wants and needs and we're targeting more of a specialised tourist experience."

16th August 2015 - AUSTRALIA URGED TO EMBRACE ITS ICONIC ‘BIG THINGS’

22nd June 2015 - BIG PINEAPPLE MUSIC FESTIVAL CO-EXISTS WITH QUEENSLAND ZOO ANIMALS

13th May 2014 - RSPCA LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO BIG PINEAPPLE MUSIC FESTIVAL’S IMPACT ON QUEENSLAND ZOO

19th April 2014 - ZOO RELOCATES TO SUNSHINE COAST’S THE BIG PINEAPPLE

17th July 2012 - SURVEY REVEALS AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE ‘BIG THINGS’

19th June 2012 - SABOTEUR SOURS BIG PINEAPPLE TRAIN RELAUNCH

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.