Melbourne Daily Photo

Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.




Waltzing Australia

Thursday 9 September 2010

Hurstbridge Wattle Festival

The last Sunday in August is the annual Wattle Festival and I went with two gentlemen - Master Five and Master Four to witness the glorious wattle that abounds in the lovely town of Hurstbridge. It is a fun family day with free horse, bus and train rides. Driving through Diamond Creek and along Heidelberg Kinglake Rd is one of my favourtie drives with the sound of birdsong and the fresh smell of trees and flowers playing imaginitive dreams with your senses.

Horse and Buggy
The horse and coach rides must be the most popular because the biggest queue was here. The boys loved riding on the carriage.

Double Decker Bus Rides
The double decker bus was the second favourite and after we had waited patiently, it was our turn but they wanted to ride "on the top" so we waited for the next one. Everyone wants to ride on the top!

Tongan Dancers
The Tongan dancers were wonderful and we sat entranced listening to Tongan music and watched various traditional dances. The ladies were a little cold in the strapless Tapa.

The Hupmobile
A display of vintage cars saw many people having a good look. Here we see Master Five and Master Four sitting in one of them. There were many more things to see and do, but alas we ran out of time. You can read more about them here.

The Wattle Girls
These lovely girls willingly posed for me - aren't they pretty in their wattle clothes?

Miss Wattle 2010
Here we see Miss Wattle 2010 graciously posing before hitching a ride with the horses. She was dressed in a lovely ballgown of green and yellow and sprigged with wattle. She said ballgowns and horses don't go well together and gave us a demonstration of how to fix this problem by tucking her gown into her purple satin bloomers!


Wattle
And of course - the wattle. Did you know there are over 600 different species throughout Australia? One species of wattle, Acacia pycnantha, is the floral emblem of Australia and is featured on our coat-of-arms.


Today's Quote: You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed ~ Rabindranath Tagore

9 comments:

Leeds DP - Paul said...

Lovely wattle girls.
I would want to be on top of the bus too! You get a much better view up there. I was lucky and was invited on the press launch of the Leeds open top double decker tourist bus, nibbles and a drink too! Thats one of the great things about my Leeds daily photo

Unknown said...

Beautiful photos - what a lovely outing.

Lowell said...

I'm glad to explained what wattle was!

What great fun you must have had. I would have enjoyed this immensely...so much color and energy...and it looks like good energy.

I thought the Tongan girls dancing in front of what I assume was a church (with the cross) seemed rich with irony ... there was a time, I'll bet, when such dancing was deemed pagan and of the devil by the religious folks...

By the way, if I come to the next festival, I want to ride on top!

Re the alligator...funny. I'll bet someone brought in a baby at one time and let it go when it got big enough to be dangerous.

This is a great post!

Elaine Yim said...

BlossomFlowerGirl, this looks like a fun carnival. There are so many people, and the event is colourful. Best of all I'm so glad you post the wattle tree. This reminds me of The Lake Isle of Innisfree, the poem by William Butler Yates. Now I can imagine what a house that is build of clay and wattles looks like ;-)

Rob Siemann said...

Wow, you had a lot of fun!
Guess they chose the slimmest Tongans they could find, as they usually are a bit... wider

paul said...

A great day out! Thanks for taking us along.

arabesque said...

this festival sure's fun, fun, fun.
oh i wish, we have something like this too!

Gemma Wiseman said...

These photos are glorious! Love the colours and the costumes and the carriage and the big red bus! What a fun day!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

My dad was given some saplings and told they were christmas trees. They grew without pine leaves and we wonder why they were called Christmas trees.

I came to see the wattles in full bloom. The are so beautiful. I told my Aussie sis, no wonder they were called Christmas tree by the person who gave it to Dad.

Melbourne Daily Photo

Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.