Thursday’s Google doodle is celebrating the 21st birthday of the Big Mango, with more than two decades of the 10m-tall fruit’s existence marked by countless road trip snaps as well as one of Guardian Australia’s earliest investigative coups.
Construction of the 10-tonne fibreglass structure began on 25 May 2002 in the town of Bowen in north Queensland, as a hefty tribute to its world-famous mangoes and prosperous fruit orchards.
The Big Mango followed in the footsteps of the many Big Things built across Australia as novelty roadside attractions since the 1960s, including the Big Bogan, the Big Banana and the Big Gumboot.
Twenty-first birthdays conventionally mark entry into adulthood but Google also notes the Big Mango’s teenage indiscretion in 2014, when “the giant piece of fruit disappeared overnight!”
News of the theft hit international headlines, aided by CCTV footage, photos and media releases sent out by the Bowen tourist information centre.
But the Guardian Australia reporter Helen Davidson smelled a rat and published her suspicions under a piece titled “Mango unchained: was Bowen’s three-storey tourist attraction really stolen?”
The tourist centre was adamant its giant mango had been stolen in the early hours of the morning, with a member of staff telling Davidson she “wished it was” a hoax.
Questions were raised in the afternoon when it was discovered that no police report had been lodged, and Guardian Australia linked one of the media releases to a Sydney advertising agency.
The mystery continued to unravel when a caller named Bob told ABC radio in Queensland that he had found the mango covered by tarps and branches in a paddock behind the information centre.
The chicken restaurant chain Nando’s eventually stepped forward to claim responsibility for the disappearance.
Nando’s was a client of the Sydney advertising agency, and thanked the residents of Bowen for being “good sports”.
While Nando’s is known for its peri-peri chicken, the PR stunt was orchestrated before its launch of a mango and lime flavour for those who cannot stand the heat.
