Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This weekend in Toowoomba, my home town, we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Carnival of Flowers. The Carnival of Flowers has a very special meaning for people who come from my part of the world. Whilst I cannot say I have attended all 60 of the floral parades, I can say—and guarantee—that a member, or members, of my family has been at every single one. That is a tradition that we intend to continue into the future. The Carnival of Flowers was rated as one of the iconic events of the Queensland 150th celebrations this year, and that indeed is a worthy title. The carnival was pulled together in the dark days after World War II. Toowoomba, like so many regions of our country, had suffered greatly through the war years. All you have to do is look at some of the war memorials that are sprinkled around the region to see how many people and families were affected by loss caused by that war. In the years immediately following the war, the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce were thinking of ways that they could pull together the community and promote the beauties of this special part of the world.

A gentleman by the name of Mr Essex Tait came up with the idea of having a festival of flowers and pushed it through the chamber of commerce. As most people know, this particular part of the Darling Downs is renowned for the richness of its soil and the beauty of its floral displays and gardens. The first parade was held in 1949, and now we are celebrating 60 years. We have built upon it. It is now not just the parade for which people gather. It is a festival. We not only celebrate the beauty of Toowoomba; we actually welcome people to come and have a look at our businesses, to see what is going on at the Darling Downs and to feel part of the very special part of the world to which we are lucky enough to belong.

That first procession, in 1949, went for three miles. Think about that. That is an extraordinarily long parade. The streets of the city were crowded with people who wanted to be part of it. I wonder, when they gathered on that day, whether they thought that 60 years later people would be travelling to the city for the festival. The festival has now been expanded. It is really a month of celebrations in the city, and tourists from all over the world come to see the beauty of our gardens, to mix with the people and to celebrate the various other activities that have been built up. One thing we as a community do is share our experiences. For many people, being part of the Carnival of Flowers, taking part in the festivals, the speedway, the various street carnivals and children’s activities, is part of a rite of passage for people who live in that part of the world. Very many memories have been formed by people who have been part of it.

The Carnival of Flowers this year, for the 60th anniversary, has invited back many of the people who have worked over the years to build up the experiences locally. A very special lady, the very first carnival queen, who was then Fay Ryan, has returned as Mrs Fay Clayden and will share in the celebrations on Saturday with the current ambassador and various other people to once again lead the parade. I am very pleased to talk about this, because Mrs Clayden was a very close mate of my mother’s. Whilst I say again that I was not there, my mum was a very strong fundraiser. She worked tirelessly for the community.

When the Carnival of Flowers Queen contest was put in place, to celebrate the first round part of the attraction was that the contestants would be raising money for charity to help Toowoomba. Ms Ryan, as she then was, raised a considerable amount of money in those days when she actually was crowned the first queen of the Carnival of Flowers and I can bet that somewhere in that fundraising my mum had a role. Over all those years later the Carnival of Flowers was linked every time to helping the local community and hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised by various contestants who put themselves forward to be the carnival queen. On Saturday I will be there with my family, including my nieces and nephews, keeping the tradition going, watching that float and thinking, as many young women in the city have been thinking, that maybe I could be on that float, but I do not think that opportunity will come my way now.

In terms of the future, I think the carnival reflects how strongly the region feels about the wonders of our part of the world and also the good that can be done. The Mayor of Toowoomba, Peter Taylor, has followed a tradition that was set up by the previous mayor, my friend Di Thorley, by starting the carnival process with a fundraising breakfast which brings people together in the beauty of Queen’s Park in the centre of our city to have a celebration with a focus on an effective fundraising community awareness. This year the charity chosen by Mayor Taylor was Guide Dogs for the Blind. I was very much encouraged by the guest speaker at the function last Sunday morning in linking in the aspects that we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Carnival of Flowers, which was started in 1949, and Guide Dogs for the Blind in Queensland is celebrating their 49th anniversary, having begun in 1960. I told her that I would mention that in my speech.

Once again I think it is important to look back on the value of community festivals in building community. That is what is so important to so many people about our Carnival of Flowers. When people are gathering together there is the very important memorabilia that pulls together people’s memories of a whole lifetime around the Carnival of Flowers. One of the things that did catch my eye, and this would be familiar to very many people who know the Toowoomba region, was a very old photograph of the Toowoomba Thistle Pipe Band, which used to lead the Carnival of Flowers processions. But, most particularly in Toowoomba memory, the pipe band was led down the main street by a very cute little dog that wore a tartan coat. That dog became an icon in our city and when Puppy died—and every child from Toowoomba knows that story—a special monument was created. It can still be seen at the top of the range in Toowoomba and little children come and see this memento of the history of our city.

The Toowoomba region is a very dynamic part of the world. It has changed immensely over the years. We still maintain our sense of welcome and the importance of our local community. People would be aware that last year there were major amalgamations of city councils and regional councils across Queensland. The new Toowoomba Regional Council is now one of the largest geographic and populous councils in Queensland, pulling together eight councils. Last week I was lucky enough to attend a planning session that was pulled together by the Toowoomba Regional Council to look at the values of people in our region and where we were moving into the future. People gave up their day voluntarily to come and talk together about what the future of their region would be. There were consistent messages as we looked at what people valued about the region and how people hoped to maintain those values into the future. One of the key aspects of that process was how much people valued their clean community. Also people valued its greenness and the fact that it was a warm and welcoming dynamic community. Those values must be maintained, and I feel confident that they will be into the future.

As for how we move into the future, I think aspects like the way that the community gathers around the Carnival of Flowers moving forward makes known to our local area as well as to the wider region that the Toowoomba Regional Council—not just the city of Toowoomba but the wider area—does have a progressive and strong future. Part of that will be maintaining the warmth of the celebration which we have had in our past and, as we celebrate 60 years of our carnival, I think we are looking forward to many more years whereby the families and the people of our region can gather together. We know that the floral tributes have gone through many changes because Toowoomba has been very badly damaged by drought, as you would know, Mr President. Past carnivals in the last couple of years have been pretty tight and we have seen the passion of people pulling together so we could still have floral excitement. Toowoomba is looking at different ways of growing that horticulture with much less water. That is part of the struggle of our region. It is something that we have survived that will make us stronger. So I join with so many other people who have lived many years while celebrating the Carnival of Flowers and I will do so this weekend and will continue doing that into the future. Our region is a wonderful part of the world and we welcome all other people to come and share it with us into the future so that we can grow into a better, stronger area.