Sept2012_MT MEE NEWS
By Ian Wells
It is my great pleasure to announce that I write this in a continuing spell of fine winter weather. Things are drying out, and man and beast are much happier for that! Let us hope that there isn’t too much El Nino coming next!
It is my great pleasure to announce that I write this in a continuing spell of fine winter weather. Things are drying out, and man and beast are much happier for that! Let us hope that there isn’t too much El Nino coming next!
The dreaded lurgi is retreating too, but boy, it has put up a fight! Your writer travelled by train to the Ekka the other day, and the chorus of coughs around the carriage was testament to that!
That was my first Ekka for some years, and other than for the cattle, it seemed a shadow of its former self. The cattle though were magnificent. I can’t get over the increase in frame size that most breeds have achieved over the last 10 or 15 years, or the improvement in conformation going with it. One Palgrove Charolais bull was just perfection to my eye, and simply mountainous with it. Some breeds listed EMA (eye muscle area) and average daily weight gain for each exhibit, making very interesting viewing. However I would still love to see those stud cattle in their working clothes rather than pampered with grain. But enough!
“Brass Sweat and Tears” attracted a useful crowd and put on an interesting concert. The hearing aid wasn’t essential equipment this time!
This is not your usual brass band, and led by an ex QSO player, the programme selected was not your usual brass band programme. Most of it worked very well, although some of it seemed a little “wooden”. The band was pleased with the crowd response and will almost certainly return next year.
The Savoyard Singers and their concert “Broadway Showcase” are set down for September 9th and may be all done by the time you read this. The programme promises some wonderful entertainment.
Not over though, will be the Mt Mee Spring Ball on Saturday 29th September. Aimed squarely at a fun night out for local people, it will feature wine and cheese, a good supper, good live music and a good floor, together with dances everyone CAN do. This year the Ball will be themed “Back to the Settlers”. We are encouraging people to dig around for costumes relevant to the early days – from about 1880 when settlement first began to the mid 1920s, when the last big influx of settlers took up the Campbell Bros country in what is now Campbells Pocket. So there is plenty of room for choice! There will be prizes for the best costumes fitting the “Settlers” theme and for the best of the current style ballgowns. All for $15.00! With music by the inimitable Mike Woollett backed by some rare talent on reeds and rhythm, it is going to be a great night!
No need to book, although some idea of numbers would be appreciated (5498 2104). And if you can’t find a baby sitter, bring the children with a blanket and a favourite DVD.
Longtime Mountain resident Tom Thomason will celebrate his 90th birthday on 15th September. Tom is a devoted follower of our Sunday concerts – having performed in stage productions in his much younger days, and turns out for most Mountain events.
He is enduring a spell in hospital with a good dose of ‘flu as I write, and we hope that he will be back home in time for his birthday afternoon tea. Relatives are travelling from as far afield as Tasmania for that event.
That was my first Ekka for some years, and other than for the cattle, it seemed a shadow of its former self. The cattle though were magnificent. I can’t get over the increase in frame size that most breeds have achieved over the last 10 or 15 years, or the improvement in conformation going with it. One Palgrove Charolais bull was just perfection to my eye, and simply mountainous with it. Some breeds listed EMA (eye muscle area) and average daily weight gain for each exhibit, making very interesting viewing. However I would still love to see those stud cattle in their working clothes rather than pampered with grain. But enough!
“Brass Sweat and Tears” attracted a useful crowd and put on an interesting concert. The hearing aid wasn’t essential equipment this time!
This is not your usual brass band, and led by an ex QSO player, the programme selected was not your usual brass band programme. Most of it worked very well, although some of it seemed a little “wooden”. The band was pleased with the crowd response and will almost certainly return next year.
The Savoyard Singers and their concert “Broadway Showcase” are set down for September 9th and may be all done by the time you read this. The programme promises some wonderful entertainment.
Not over though, will be the Mt Mee Spring Ball on Saturday 29th September. Aimed squarely at a fun night out for local people, it will feature wine and cheese, a good supper, good live music and a good floor, together with dances everyone CAN do. This year the Ball will be themed “Back to the Settlers”. We are encouraging people to dig around for costumes relevant to the early days – from about 1880 when settlement first began to the mid 1920s, when the last big influx of settlers took up the Campbell Bros country in what is now Campbells Pocket. So there is plenty of room for choice! There will be prizes for the best costumes fitting the “Settlers” theme and for the best of the current style ballgowns. All for $15.00! With music by the inimitable Mike Woollett backed by some rare talent on reeds and rhythm, it is going to be a great night!
No need to book, although some idea of numbers would be appreciated (5498 2104). And if you can’t find a baby sitter, bring the children with a blanket and a favourite DVD.
Longtime Mountain resident Tom Thomason will celebrate his 90th birthday on 15th September. Tom is a devoted follower of our Sunday concerts – having performed in stage productions in his much younger days, and turns out for most Mountain events.
He is enduring a spell in hospital with a good dose of ‘flu as I write, and we hope that he will be back home in time for his birthday afternoon tea. Relatives are travelling from as far afield as Tasmania for that event.
Kevin Austin continues to plan for a Mt Mee museum. The difficulty lies in finding a suitable venue. There is general agreement that it must be within the historic precinct – church, school and hall, if it is to work. Currently Kevin is looking to establish a space by excavating underneath the back of the Hall, and Hall committee is comfortable with this – with certain provisos. But that work will be costly, and can only yield limited space. Maybe a stand-alone purpose designed building hung over the bank on the back edge of the Arthur Duncan car park would be the best solution – offering space, position and unparalleled views. These and other alternatives will be discussed at a public meeting to be called by Kevin in September, at which a steering committee will be established.
Meanwhile the offer from the Woodford museum to provide space for a short term Mt Mee exhibit holds good. If you have, (or you know of), items that might be worthy of inclusion in a Mt Mee exhibit, please phone Kevin on 5498 2282. To have successfully run a small exhibit at Woodford will be a powerful argument when it comes to extracting funding for our own facility.
Finally, a rare piece of good news. Some may remember Neil, the ‘squire’s bailiff’ of whom we often wrote in the early days of this column. In very late middle age, Neil decided that he had ‘got over’ milking cows. He moved to central western Queensland and entered into a joint beef cattle venture, with disastrous results. Sadder, wiser and much poorer, he stayed in the general area and did casual work on local properties for a couple of years. However the inevitable ‘bargain’ presented itself and he very nervously bought a small beef cattle run – heavily “leveraged” as they say euphemistically. The place is small, was bare and had been flogged out.
He cautiously leased out the grazing for a couple more years – meanwhile improving the waters and spreading buffel seed. Eventually he did muster enough cash to purchase a few breeders for himself.
He phoned me for a chat one evening recently, to say that the gamble seems to be working out. His grass is improving, his herd numbers are slowly building, he is paying his bills and best of all, his son and newly acquired daughter-in-law have recently arrived from the coast with money to invest, and are settling into life on the property.
What a great outcome for a man who has been a battler working for others all of his life.
He had a vision!
Meanwhile the offer from the Woodford museum to provide space for a short term Mt Mee exhibit holds good. If you have, (or you know of), items that might be worthy of inclusion in a Mt Mee exhibit, please phone Kevin on 5498 2282. To have successfully run a small exhibit at Woodford will be a powerful argument when it comes to extracting funding for our own facility.
Finally, a rare piece of good news. Some may remember Neil, the ‘squire’s bailiff’ of whom we often wrote in the early days of this column. In very late middle age, Neil decided that he had ‘got over’ milking cows. He moved to central western Queensland and entered into a joint beef cattle venture, with disastrous results. Sadder, wiser and much poorer, he stayed in the general area and did casual work on local properties for a couple of years. However the inevitable ‘bargain’ presented itself and he very nervously bought a small beef cattle run – heavily “leveraged” as they say euphemistically. The place is small, was bare and had been flogged out.
He cautiously leased out the grazing for a couple more years – meanwhile improving the waters and spreading buffel seed. Eventually he did muster enough cash to purchase a few breeders for himself.
He phoned me for a chat one evening recently, to say that the gamble seems to be working out. His grass is improving, his herd numbers are slowly building, he is paying his bills and best of all, his son and newly acquired daughter-in-law have recently arrived from the coast with money to invest, and are settling into life on the property.
What a great outcome for a man who has been a battler working for others all of his life.
He had a vision!
