She has been out of the public eye for a little while, but after a much-needed makeover, the Big Pineapple is once again standing bright and proud over the Sunshine Coast.
The gigantic tropical fruit, thorns and all, has been wrapped in scaffolding while it was sandblasted, repaired, and repainted ahead of its reopening on Tuesday.
Owner Peter Kendall said guests might be able to ride the Plantation Train again, which once carried then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana around the grounds.
Mr Kendall said he hoped the train would be ready to run again next week, but that would depend on whether its registration was approved in time.
The cafe will also be reopening, alongside a new playground and viewing deck.
But what about the parfaits?
The parfait bar will return, but not just yet.
“It’s quite amazing the response [we’ve had] about the parfaits,” Mr Kendall said.
“I’ve always known that but it gets hammered home when you start reading all those comments on Facebook that we absolutely need to bring them back.
“My vision is to get the old parfait signs, which are also heritage-listed, and hang them back over the top of it, exactly like it used to be.”
Allowing people back inside the Big Pineapple too was near the top of his tropical to-do list.
“We absolutely are going to renovate the inside of it and reopen it,” Mr Kendall said.
The heritage-listed interior of the fruit needs major repairs with rotting framework needing to go.
But Mr Kendall said once the work is done, the classic appeal will not be lost.
“It used to have two TVs in it, so we’ll replace them with flat-screen TVs.
“What I’d really like to do is find the old Golden Circle video, which I think they shot back in the 80s.
“It would be very cool to have that sort of looping on one of the screens.”
Return of our favourite ‘big thing’
University of the Sunshine Coast historian Amy Clarke said the return of the Big Pineapple was “a huge deal”.
“The Big Pineapple is one of, I think, two big things in Australia that are state heritage-listed. The other one is in New South Wales,” Dr Clarke said.
“And it’s been closed for the past few years, so reopening finally people are going to get up really close to it, touch the skin of the pineapple again — it’s pretty epic,” she said.
Dr Clarke said it was a reminder of Queensland’s first real effort of “agricultural tourism” with southerners intrigued by how pineapples actually grew.
“I think it’s a really good historical artefact, that kind of mentality,” she said.
There was also appeal, she said, in that the Big Pineapple never seemed too serious — even when visited by royalty.
“It’s kitschy, it’s tacky, I don’t think it’s pretending to be serious. And I think people realise that and appreciate it,” Dr Clarke said.
“I think even when we get dignitaries like Charles and Diana visiting, they appreciate that it’s not trying to be posh high art. It’s embracing what it is.”
Where to from here?
Mr Kendall was among three investors who purchased the site after it was shut down in late 2010.
In the years since, the Big Pineapple site became home to a major zoo, a high ropes course, and the Big Pineapple Music Festival.
It marked its 50th anniversary in 2021.
Mr Kendall said the next part of the Pineapple’s staged redevelopment would include a “big coffee shop”, produce market, juice bar — and the parfait bar.
“I don’t want to change too much other than sort of modernise some of it and make it a bit more contemporary,” Mr Kendall said.
“The ethos of the place will remain the same.”
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