If you’ve ever wanted to participate in a giant fish-heaving contest, have we got the place for you! Coming up on its sixtieth anniversary in 2020, Australia’s Tunarama celebration is a tradition that happens in the late part of January (which is summertime in the Land Down Under) every year. It’s four long days of fish-centric fun for everyone except those whose seafood allergies make their faces blow up like summer squashes. Tens of thousands of people show up in Port Lincoln, a city of about sixteen thousand located on a jutting southern tip of the state of South Australia, to partake in various activities that all have something to do with the titular fish. But the main and most popular event of the entire proceedings is the Championship Tuna Toss, where athletic competitors see who can throw a rotting koala carcass the farthest. Well, no. Of course they don’t do that. What they actually do is throw a big dead tuna.
Both men and women are welcome to compete in the Tuna Toss. Amateurs and professionals are equally free to take part as well. Not that there’s any such thing as a pro seafood shot putter; the closest is the world champion hammer thrower, Australian Sean Carlin, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. On a side note, Carlin has since retired from the sport (both hammer throwing and fish throwing) and is currently a teacher. We’d be willing to bet that his students are much more impressed with his tuna accomplishments than anything else in his athletic background. In case you’re curious, he threw the winning fish 37.23 meters in 1998. That’s less than half the current record for hammer throwing, but hammers don’t tend to be covered in ice, slime, and stink like the average frozen tuna corpse.
Tunarama began life as a way to lure tourists to out-of-the-way Port Lincoln, but since its inception it has become a beloved tradition that draws outsiders and locals alike. Along with the inevitable tuna-themed parade, attendees can also take part in sunny summer activities like sand castle building and the like, all while listening to live music and consuming mass quantities of fried foods. There’s even a children’s area called the Carnivale of the Sea, where adults dressed as mermaids and pirates divert the kids while their parents sample the wares of the various beer and wine vendors.
Kangaroo. It’s What’s for Dinner
The national animal of Australia is the red kangaroo. This makes perfect sense, as that creature is definitely one of the top three things that come to mind when you think of the country (along with koalas and the late Steve Irwin). But while few people in America would ever consider devouring a bald eagle, or citizens of the United Kingdom countenance the thought of dining on a bulldog, kangaroos are definitely on the menu for Aussies. From kangaroo stir-fry to kangaroo skewers in red wine marinade, greedily nibbling on large, hoppity marsupials is widely considered “fair dinkum.” We’re not exactly sure what that phrase means, but we’ll assume it translates to “tastes gamey.”
But what everyone wants to see, of course, is the famous tuna-tossing contest. It’s something that everyone who witnesses it will remember forever, especially the woman who took a flying frozen fish to the face in 1989 and wound up receiving $35,000 in compensation after a six-day stay in a local hospital. That incident wasn’t the only controversy that Tunarama has had to overcome: in 2002, a bikini contest led to lewd and lascivious behavior, which in turn led to accusations that the event was demeaning toward women. Yet Tunarama endured, overcoming all obstacles and earning the admiration and affection of the community after providing a place for victims of raging 2005 bushfires to relieve tensions. Because nothing relieves tension like the possibility of head trauma inflicted by an airborne albacore.
Open Wide for the Witchetty Grub
The Witchetty grub, a plump, finger-sized moth larvae, has served as a natural fast food, or “bush tucker,” for the Aboriginal Australians for eons. While one might assume that everyone else on the continent would consider the very idea of stuffing these wriggling horrors into their mouths abhorrent, increasingly they can be found for sale in major supermarkets. As for what happens when you actually do sink your teeth into one, opinions vary. Some people say if you eat them raw, the gooey center has the flavor of almonds. If consumed after some time sizzling and popping in a pan, its flavor is reportedly reminiscent of scrambled eggs. And unsurprisingly, there are also those who insist it tastes just like chicken.
The only real controversy today, and one that has reared its fishy head for years, is that the Tuna Toss seems to be a thoughtless waste of perfectly good food. That’s true also of the competition’s junior version, in which youngsters who can’t yet lift hefty frozen fish instead throw shrimp as far as they can in the “Prawn Toss.” To alleviate concerns, a local artist named Ken Martin was commissioned in 2008 to construct a plastic tuna replica that would be thrown instead of an actual fish. Response to the change has been mixed, as one competitor explained to a reporter: “There’s no big difference while you’re throwing, but when I did it with the real tuna last time, it had defrosted in the heat and snapped. Yeah, so that was a bit dangerous, but you do lose the whole fun side of it being a fake fish.” Fish dismemberment or the possibility of grievous injury? Perhaps it doesn’t matter since both things sound like such a blast.
