Thank you, Mister Deputy Chair. I rise to speak on two local events in my community and put on record my congratulations to all those involved. First is the Pennies by the Sea festival. The fifth annual event was held a few weeks ago in the heart of Sandgate at the Einbunpin Lagoon Parklands and in the morning at the Criterion Racetrack at Nundah. It’s a celebration put on by the Queensland Penny Farthing and Historical Cycle Club.
Each year for the last five years that I have supported, and my predecessor, Victoria Newton, the former Councillor and the State Member for Sandgate, Stirling Hinchliffe, has supported that each year and I’d like to congratulate the organisers this year, George, Brett, Aaron and the team behind them, the Penny Stack, which is a formation of penny farthing cycles, bicycles, penny farthings, as you call them, I suppose, reach 29 this year.
So that’s no Australian record, but I know the club is aiming for that. The current Australian record is held in Evandale in Tasmania.
Through the advocacy of Brett Richardson from the club, who also teaches at the Bracken Ridge TAFE and he runs a course on building penny farthings—so he has helped people in Brisbane, 100 people, construct penny farthings there at
the Bracken Ridge TAFE—he has lobbied for and secured the 2023 International Veterans Cycle Association Rally for Australia and Sandgate is in the box seat to secure that as the location for that. So we will see participants from right around the world come and converge on Sandgate with their historic bicycles to participate there.
This year, Trevor Proud, a local artist, produced the poster for the event. And that was auctioned off at the event and all the proceeds went to SANDBAG, Sandgate and Bracken Ridge Action Group, who run the local community centre. So it was a fantastic event and I want to congratulate them on continuing to put Sandgate on the map in terms of historic cycling events.
The other one I want to talk about is the 27th Annual Einbunpin Festival, which happened on the last weekend—the last Sunday in July, 29 July.
Each year it’s held on that weekend and it was established in 1992 as a celebration by and for the community for those things that make our Sandgate and surrounding suburbs special, the village atmosphere, the environment and the diverse talents and cultures that make up the community.
It was established by the former Councillor for Deagon Ward, Denise Herbert, who is still a regular attendee, and a small group of committee members on the Einbunpin Festival Committee and it has been auspiced by SANDBAG, the organisation
that I mentioned previously, since the very start.
And a couple of people who were involved in the very first festival in 1992 are still involved in our committee today. Betty is a very active member of that and the likes of Margaret Jeays and the late Laurie Jeays were very active members as well and it was wonderful to see Margaret on the day there as well. The festival is, of course, not possible without the support of dedicated volunteers, and I do want to make special mention of some of those. Our entertainment coordinator, Mary, and her able assistant, Blake, who ran our youth stage, and these are people for the first time ran these activities.
Our previous entertainment coordinator, after many years, retired last year. So they did a fantastic job in organising four stages and roving entertainment throughout the day. Avalon MacKellar, our stalls coordinator; Jen Henderson,
from my office; and, for the first year, we had a number of local school students who contributed not only in the set up, but also on the day and I do want to give a special mention to the Bracken Ridge High students who not only provided stage management assistance, but also all day activities. They ran all day activities in the children’s area and during the middle of the day in our games arena. Cameron, Bradley and Ryan on the stages and Lachlan and
Henry in the games area. And students from St Patrick’s College, they provided around a dozen students at 5am for set up on the Sunday. They did a magnificent job and special mention to Mason and McKenzie, who came back at the end of the day at 4pm and helped us pack up and the Sandgate Scouts, Michelle, Lyn, Marie, Jason, Josh and Jonathan, who helped us set up on Saturday and helped all day on Sunday as well.
It’s the first time this festival has ever had that kind of support from our community, so it’s fantastic to see. And I just also want to make a special mention of our sponsors as well: Brisbane City Council, of course, funding is
provided, $12,000, each year, well, in recent years and again this year from the Brisbane City Council in festival funding. And as I mentioned, SANDBAG, who auspice our event; State Member for Sandgate, Stirling Hinchliffe;
Northside Family Law Centre; Bracken Ridge McDonald’s; and Kuhn Corp Press and Packaging were major supporters.
Other sponsors as well, Wayne Swan, the Federal Member for Lilley, the Full Moon Hotel, Suez, Veolia, The Sandgate Guide and Artrageous Community Arts and Crafts Centre and a whole host of other local businesses who donated prizes for our activities and our art and other things. Sweet Georgia Boutique, Sandgate; Domino’s Sandgate; Bracken Ridge Tavern; Capulet & Co, Sandgate; Oopsa Daisy Flowers & Gifts, Sandgate; Bayside Brewing; The Natural Candle Shop; Something About Audrey; TSG Golden Casket; Victoria’s Bling; Priceline, Sandgate; and Sandgate Pharmacy.
Without the support of our sponsors, this festival simply wouldn’t happen.
Leave A Comment