The biggest peanut city in Australia is Kingaroy but it was without a big thing until November 2021 when the Big Peanut was revealed.
It had been over 4 years since I last travelled through Kingaroy on a brown sign hunting trip. Big things were not something I was collecting at the time, but I couldn’t remember the big peanut being there. That’s because it wasn’t.
The Big Peanut is a steel structure made by scrap metal artist Kane Minogue in Grafton. The steel big peanut is 3.2 metres high and 1.2 metres wide, with the centre of the peanut 0.6 metres wide.
The peanut industry is the heart of Kingaroy, with the industry the key feature at the Kingaroy Heritage Museum. The large Kingaroy Peanut Silos are dominant in the skyline around Kingaroy, built in 1938 and 1948.
The Peanut Van
On the opposite corner of Baron St is the famous Peanut Van. The Peanut Van has been around for over 50 years, since 1969. You will find just about any flavour of peanuts here, including Kurry (that is how they spell it), hickory smoke, maple bacon, tangy lime, Mexican delight, spicy Massaman, and simple regular sea salt peanuts.
Bags of peanuts in their shells, peanut butter, chocolate coated peanuts, peanut brittle, blanched, roasted and natural. There is a peanut for everyone to try.