There are plans afoot to revive the Big Orange, one of the nation’s many Big Things, which has been sitting dormant on the outskirts of Berri in South Australia for 20 years.
A recent development application for the site submitted to Plan SA includes a proposal for a brewery, distillery and restaurant, reigniting hopes that the once popular tourist attraction will be reopened.
Standing at 15 metres tall, it is the largest of Australia’s “big fruits”, but today it resembles more of a faded orb than a giant orange, closed off to the public behind a barbed wire fence.
This is not the first attempt to reopen the Big Orange. In 2018, Riverland resident Paul Nikolis launched a petition to turn it into a strip club. The petition was a joke, but it drew the site back into the spotlight.
The Berri Barmera mayor, Ella Winnall, said it was no secret the community would be excited about any prospect of reviving the nostalgic landmark.
“The Big Orange is an icon of the whole Riverland, but it’s been closed for the best part of 20 years now,” she said.
“Everyone has fond memories of it. It’s quite the novelty and has a lot of nostalgia about it. So if it were redeveloped I’m sure it would be popular for both visitors and locals.”
Helen Aggeletos has bittersweet memories of visiting the Big Orange 25 years ago when it was still in operation. She works as the managing director of Venus Citrus, a local family-run citrus packing and processing company, which her father started in 1977.
She described the site of the Big Orange as a desert. It is next to a highway and for years Aggeletos has driven past it, watching the trees die during the drought.
Berri, north-east of Adelaide, is primarily an agricultural and viticultural city on the banks of the Murray River. Opened in 1980, the Big Orange was built to represent and showcase the region’s citrus industry.
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The Adelaide-based urban planner Mark Kwiatkowski, who submitted the application, said the owner was looking to redevelop the site and return it to its “former glory”.
He said these days people pull up to the site and feel “a bit of disappointment”.
“You end up looking at this icon that you remember from the past and it’s just in a bit of a poor state,” he said.
“We visited a few years ago and my kids thought, what’s this? You couldn’t really interact with the Big Orange. But now it’ll be interactive and we’ll make sure that there’s enough there to work with local growers.”
The proposal includes the construction of a brewery and distillery and an associated bar and restaurant, which Kwiatkowski said would be separate from the original structure. The Big Orange would still feature its original viewing platform, and would have a small cafe inside.
Kwiatkowski said they he wanted to “pay homage to the history of the area” by establishing some orange orchards and showcasing locally sourced produce, such as an orange-themed beer to customers.
“It’s going to be an opportunity for people to come sample not only beers but we’re doing some gins and whiskey, and some really nice food from the region,” he said.
Aggeletos said the past couple of years had been “extremely challenging” for the citrus industry, which has faced significant labour shortages after Covid, as well as rising costs, export shipping delays and floods.
The current owner of the Big Orange, Fred Vallelonga, was approached for comment.
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