Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Townsville suffered at the hands of Cyclone Yasi this year. Our recovery has been slow but the month of July will mark a full swing: Townsville is now back. It is open, ready for business and very busy. What a month July will be! We have the last night of the Townsville Show tonight. It has been going for 128 years and there is something there for the whole family. To anyone who is going to the Townsville Show tonight, please do not buy tickets for the woodworkers' outdoor setting. I have bought about 300 bucks worth of tickets because I desperately need an outdoor setting.

The Sucrogen Townsville 400 V8s, along with the V8 Gala Ball and V8 Ladies Lunch, is a big thing this weekend. Yes, my mother-in-law will be turning 70 and I will be down at the Burdekin for that, but I will be going on Friday afternoon. It is a big weekend with 160,000 to 180,000 people going through the turnstiles. Following that, we have the Australian Festival of Chamber Music Chefs of the North Dinner and the full-blown Australian Festival of Chamber Music. This is where culture and art come together in North Queensland. Dave Kippin and his team at the Festival of Chamber Music are excellent, and the Chefs of the North Dinner is where we have guest chefs from all around the world coming to Townsville to work with a very good chefs like Wayne from Wayne & Adele's Garden of Eating and the executive chef at the RSL club, who is one of the greatest golf burglars you will ever see. It is a dinner not missed by anybody.

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you play?

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not playing.. The Motoco RV Dam Fine Rally is for motor homes and caravans. They will be having a big get-together. All of the people with mobile homes will be coming together in one fantastic event. The craft and sewing show is something in which I will be participating. I have a quilt I will be showing at that—no, I will not be. That is at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre. It is one of the big shows in North Queensland. There are lots and lots of people who come there; exhibitors from all over the country will be there.

There will also be the Zookini Art Exhibition at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. Frances Thompson does a magnificent job at getting the art groups together. Zookini is a wonderful thing. It is interactive art. They had something like 10,000 people through an earlier exhibition and I was lucky enough to be there when the 10,000th person came through.

Stars? You want stars? I will give you stars. Reg Livermore's 'Turns' will be on at the civic theatre. I saw Reg Livermore from Betty Blokk Buster at Her Majesty's Theatre in Brisbane in the early 1980s. He is one of the great performers of our time. He still looks pretty good in a frock.

The Townsville Choral Society will be presenting My Fair Lady. It is an absolutely fantastic show: 'Come on Rover, move your bloomin' arse!' That is what we want to see. It is one of the great moments of that fantastic show. The Townsville Choral Society is a very active part of the city.

There are the Townsville cultural markets at the Reef HQ. The big one of the month is the North Queensland Herpetological Society meeting. That is where all the reptiles get together. It is a big meeting and everyone will be there. You have PANTS, the Performance Arts Network Townsville. There will be wildlife care training from North Queensland Wildlife Care Inc. There will be the Townsville Annual Shell Show. You walk into the shell show and you can hear the sea. It is one of the greatest things you will ever see. There is the Townsville Music and Performing Arts Space where artists and musicians get together. They have workshops for anyone from 12 to 18 to 50 to 100. One thing for the member for Hinkler: the Townsville Ukulele Club meeting. All you need are two fingers on one hand and an index finger on the other and you are on your way. On the other side, there is Analog Zombie presents Electro Therapy. Their notes do not remove hair from your upper lip; they are in fact DJs and music. The mighty North Queensland Cowboys are up against the West Tigers at Dairy Farmers Stadium on 16 July and up against the Penrith Panthers on 30 July. We are playing great football. We will be in the top eight.

There is the Black Tie, which are morning melodies for all the oldies at the Civic Theatre. There is 2001 Former Origin Greats Indigenous Employment and Careers Expo, where we will be celebrating no less than six series wins in a row. 'What's an orchestra?', you may well ask. You will find out this month in Townsville. It is an introduction to classical music at the Civic Theatre. At the Perc Tucker gallery you will be able to go to 'In the Japanese Manner'—Australian prints from 1900 to 1940. 'Indigenous Art,' I hear you say. There are Girringun Indigenous artists Q&A and Arts in the Dark, all to be held at the Umbrella Studio. Come to Townsville.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In thanking the member for Herbert for that invigorating experience, I regrettably must tell him his time has expired. I now call the member for Fowler for a similar performance.