WESTSIDE COMMUNITIES GO ALL OUT TO CELEBRATE QLD’S 150TH

From the Q150 Floating Global Village and photographic exhibitions to a Recycling Festival communities on Brisbane’s Westside have pulled out all stops to celebrate next year’s Queensland’s 150^th Anniversary, Premier Anna Bligh said today.

“There is outstanding interest for the remaining $2.4 million for the third and final round of the $4 million Q150 Community Funding Program,” she said.

The program, initiated by the Government, helps communities stage their own 2009 celebrations.

“Once again creative events and activities dominate the line-up.

“Twenty-one community applications from Westside communities have successfully applied for $174,304 in the third and final round of Q150 Community Funding.

“They Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference 2009’s week long student conference and festival, the Q150 Floating Global Village and Cubberla-Witton Catchments Network Inc Recycling Festival.

“It’s great to see communities so excited about celebrating our 150^th anniversary of separation from New South Wales.

“We’ve come a long way since 1859 and we have plenty to celebrate.

“Today’s Proclamation Day and 21 sleeps until we start our biggest birthday year yet.

“We’ve added more than 300 successful community commemorative projects to the Q150 groundswell of activity that’s building up for next year.

“Queenslanders now have almost 500 Queensland Government-funded community activities they can enjoy or participate in around the State.

“This is on top of the major touring events like the Q150 steam train, Q150 shed and Q150 Film Festival.

“Queensland turns 150 only once and we’re doing everything we can to make sure celebrations touch as many Queenslanders as possible.

“From Weipa and the Torres Strait Islands in the North to Bedourie in the Far West and the Gold Coast in the South, there’s a Q150 activity for everyone.

“2009 is our year! Get ready to enjoy the events, the commemorations and the many creative ways you’ve come up with to mark this milestone in your own communities.”

Westside Q150 Community Funding projects in Round 3:

Ashgrove RSL Sub Branch, Red Hill, $10,000. Provision and installation of artworks and memorabilia in the proposed new memorial at Stewart Place, Ashgrove, and a Q150 commemorative celebration prior to the 11 of November 2009. The artwork and memorabilia will cover the stories and memories of Australians at war from the Boer War to recent conflicts and will feature significant actions for example Gallipoli (WW1), Milne Bay (WW2), Kapyong (Korean War) and Long Tan(Vietnam War). The story board will feature a section on the 61^st Battalion.

Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference 2009. St Lucia, $10,000. The Q150 Floating Global Village, a week long student conference. The conference covers a range of academic disciplines such as the World Health Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Environmental Program. Delegates are required to use a range of skills – discussion, writing and debating – to create a resolution on issues. They are encouraged to approach these issues from different and new perspectives. By a range of high profile international speakers. Model UNs (United Nations) are a relatively recent initiative. 2009 will be the first conference of this kind to be held in Brisbane in the year of Queensland and Brisbane’s 150^th anniversaries.

Buddhist Council of Queensland, Ashgrove, $4800. A five-month touring regional photographic exhibition on the beginnings of Buddhism in Queensland as a result of Asian migration. The exhibition will begin with a launch in Brisbane. It will portray the early beginnings of Buddhism in the State, spanning the gold rush, sugar-cane and tobacco plantations, northern island trade and commerce and mining.

Croquet Association Queensland Inc, Milton, $10,000. Celebrating Croquet in Queensland tournaments hosted by eight clubs that have passed their own centenary by 2009. The project also includes the production of an electronic database and CD-ROM of photographs and historical data. The first public croquet lawn in Brisbane was in the Botanical Gardens in 1879. During the first half of the 20^th Century, croquet was known as a sport for women. Competition was open to men in the mid-1960s.

Cubberla-Witton Catchments Network Inc, Chapel Hill, $7710. The Recycling Festival aims to celebrate Queenslanders' positive attitude to their environment and sustainable living. The festival themes will be sustainability, issues effecting our natural environment and our natural resources, as well as our quality of living. There will be an environmental theatre, a music program with instruments made of waste material, craft workshops using discarded materials, as well as demonstrations on bio-recycling.

Ithaca Creek Swim Club, Bardon, $3350. The Q150 Splash Gala Event celebrates swimming as a fitness and athletic achievement that is synonymous with Queensland. It will be held in April 2009 at the Ithaca Creek State School Swimming Pool and will involve a good old fashioned BBQ with a photographic display of the Schools’ pool and club swimmers from the past up until the present. There will also be a fashion parade of bathing costumes throughout the ages. The event will culminate in the annual presentation of trophies and medals to members of the club with presentations being made by famous guests.

The Gap State High School Parents and Citizens Association, $10,000. Research into the history of secondary education in The Gap area in the lead up to the school’s 50^th birthday celebration in 2010. This is an opportunity to critically examine the secondary school history in Queensland’s 150^th year. The results will be published on the school’s website and in a publication by the end of 2009.

Milpera State High School Parents and Citizens Association, Chelmer, $10,000. A 20-25 minute documentary based on interviews and archival material from selected representatives of major migration waves, starting with the Vietnamese boat people and including former Yugoslavian peoples, El Salvadorians, Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans, Afghanis, Sudanese and other African groups and the Karen people.

The DVD will be shown at an event that acknowledges the contribution to the cultural and economic life of Queensland and marks Queensland’s 150^th anniversary and the Association’s 25^th anniversary.

Milton State School Parents and Citizens Association, Milton, $9300. A series of displays of Milton State School artefacts and historic documents related to the local community and its history. These displays will be shared at local community and school events to celebrate the 120^th year of schooling at Milton State School and the Q150 anniversary, including the Jazz ‘n’ Shiraz event. It is also an opportunity to organise and catalogue the huge flood of historic documents and artefacts that are housed by the school and wider community.

Oakleigh State School Parents and Citizens Association, $10,000. Three significant records to highlight Queensland’s and Oakleigh State School’s history (1934-2009) as part of Q150 Celebrations. The three records are: a 16-month Q150 calendar, Anniversary booklet (1994-2009), and a photo shoot that will complement a previous photographic collection taken a decade earlier.

Professional Historians Association (Qld), Karana Downs, $10,000. 2009 Professional Historians Conference - Journeys through Queensland history. The conference will reflect on and celebrate Queensland's past, and analyse the lessons of history on the present and future. The conference will be open to all who have an interest in history, and a free session will be available to the general public.

Queensland Card Collectors Society Inc, Taringa, $10,000. A permanent record of some early Queensland postcards in the form of a book, magazine and commemorative postcards. The book will create a record of historically significant series of postcard images of Queensland at the beginning of the 20^th Century. There are more than 300 images in this series alone. Topics covered include railways, shipping, agriculture, early images of towns and postcard photographers.

Queensland Energy Museum Inc, Herston, $8394. Switched on Queensland, a publication celebrating Queensland’s electricity heritage from the earliest application of hydro-electricity generation in the State which was one of the first in the southern hemisphere at Thargominda in the late 19^th century to present day energy saving technologies and future sustainability issues. The project harks back to the 1950s-80s when communities would have street parades, dances and games to celebrate the switching on of electricity in their towns.

Rotary Club of Karana Downs, $2765. Pictorial historical signage in the Mt Crosby region enabling the community and visitors to clearly identify places of historical significance, such as the Mt Crosby water treatment plant, pumping station and weir on the Brisbane River.

Sherwood State School Parents and Citizens Association, $7398. Digitisation of the School’s historic photographic collection of 3000 images and 97 years of the schools history, ensuring the images remain available for future generations. It will be invaluable to the school as it heads towards its own 150^th anniversary in 2017.

The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Inc, Milton, $10,000. A DVD of a trek to many of Queensland’s historical, industrial, geographical and cultural icons. 150 Queenslanders will be invited on the trek so they too can acquaint themselves with places that are uniquely Queensland. This includes places like the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree, Lark Quarry, Carnarvon Gorge, the Combo Waterhole where Banjo Patterson penned Waltzing Matilda, Mt Morgan (once one of the world’s great gold mines), Gladstone and the present coal mines to name a few. The DVD will be a visual record of Queensland at this point in time and a celebration of the State’s 150^th birthday.

Sue Rider, Auchenflower, $10,000. The premiere production of The Pink Twins, a new music theatre work about twins, eccentricity and the desire to do good by Queensland artists Sue Rider (text/direction) and John Rodgers (music) in celebration of the rose-coloured lives and work of Brisbane identities, Dorothy and Moyia O’Brien who were descendants of the founders of Defiance Mills. Occupational therapists, they were well-known New Farm residents who dressed in pink, lived in a pink house, drove a pink car and fought for 30 years to maintain The Sunshine Welfare and Remedial Association on the edge of Brisbane’s Albert Park for people with disabilities.This is a fresh approach to the dissemination of Brisbane’s history through the creation of a living story.

Surf Lifesaving Queensland, South Brisbane, $10,000. Celebrating a Centenary of Summers, the combined celebration of Queensland’s 150^th anniversary and the centenary of Surf Lifesaving Queensland. The Centenary of Summers is a re-enactment of the first rescue of five individuals on 21 February 1909. A group of young men were training in rescue drills when a group of young women got into difficulties in the surf. The young men went to their aid and rescued them from drowning. It was the final boost that formed the start of the first Surf Life Saving Club in Queensland. The Surf Life Saving movement is synonymous with Queensland. This event pays tribute to the selfless actions of volunteer lifesavers as they protect Queenslanders every summer on our beautiful beaches.

The University of Queensland, St Lucia, $9992. Celebration and Commemoration of Lamalama Traditional Crafts promotes an appreciation of the culture and heritage of the Lamalama community of Cape York Peninsula. It will include the Thompson collection, a highly valued collection of the Lamalama people. The aim of the project is to assist the Lamalama people affirm their cultural identity through research activities that include museum visits, the production of audiovisual materials and a public celebration of their history through a Lamalama Culture and History Day to be hosted by the community in 2009.

The University of Queensland, St Lucia, $7000. Hibiscus and Tea-Tree: Queensland’s women, remembering our past, a paperback book will draw together in one volume some of the best of previous writings about women in Queensland. Examples of topics to be included are: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories, Contact Histories, Race Relations, Labour Movement, Women in World Wars, Women’s Suffrage, Women and Girls’ Education, Literature, Sexuality and Women’s Health, Migrants, Short stories and journalism, poems.

Vera Street Community Garden Inc, Toowong, $3595 A community Q150 bush dance and other fun activities for families and the elderly including, the burying of a time capsule and a bush tucker garden planting at Vera Street. These activities are open for community participation. The Bush Tucker garden will feature edible Indigenous plants.

Q150 program of events is available online at www.q150.qld.gov.au. More events are uploaded weekly. Printed programs will be available in local newspapers week commencing 25 January 2008 with a second printed program planned mid-year.

Media inquiries: 3224 4500

Austin Hogan, RLOAM, President, Ashgrove RSL Sub-Branch, 3366 2666, janet.hogan@bigpond.com.

Christian Jack, Under-Secretary, General Sponsorship, Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference 2009, 0431 205 028, amunc2009@gmail.com

James Ferguson, President, Buddhist Council of Queensland, 0418 742 007, jimferguson1@bigpond.com

Janet King, Director, Queensland Energy Museum Inc, 3854 1266, fax 3854 1861, director@wnergymuseum.com.au

Carolyn Ribone, Newsletter Editor, Croquet Association Queensland Inc, 3138 3557, c.tribone@qut.edu.au

Jutta Godwin, President, Cubberia-Witton Catchments Network Inc, 0407 583 441, jrgo@bigpond.net.au

Sharyn Casey, Ithaca Creek Swim Club, 3311 2602, realoptios@optusnet.com.au

Karena Menzie, Marketing Officer, The Gap State High School Parents and Citizens Association, 3511 3888

Julie Romaniuk, Secretary, Milpera State High School Parents and Citizens Association, 3379 5588 romaniuk@internode.on.net

Lee Peters, Milton State School Parents and Citizens Association, 3224 7561, lee.peters@nrw.qld.gov.au

Lindy Sugars, Oakleigh State School Parents and Citizens Association, 0407 653 408, lsugar@optusnet.com.au

Judith Nissen, Vice President, Professional Historians Association (Qld), 0408 191 017, nissens@gil.com.au

Alan McNaughton, President, Queensland Card Collectors Society Inc, 3371 8844 amcnaugh@bigpond.net.au

David Kearney, President, Rotary Club of Karana Downs, 3201 0354 dkals@gil.com.au

Michelle Hiller, Sherwood State School Parents and Citizens Association, 3379 3968 mhiller@bigpond.net.au

Leo Scanlan, Vice President, The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Inc, 3834 8387, trekabout@optusnet.com.au

Sue Rider, 3870 2674, suerider@iprimus.com.au

John Brennan, Executive Manager, Surf Life Saving Queensland, 3846 8031, jbrennan@lifesaving.com.au

Diane Hafner, Lecturer, The University of Queensland, 3381 1453 d.hafner@uq.edu.au

Carole Ferrier, Director, The University of Queensland, 3365 3146 c.ferrier@uq.edu.au

Kelly Greenop, Vice-President, Vera Street Community Garden Inc, 0412 807 184, kellygreenop@gmail.com