COUNCILLOR Michele Brown officially opened this year’s 69th Dumbleyung Bluebird Festival and gave a thought provoking speech about community volunteers and their special talents.
This is what she had to say:
“Over the years I have realised that there are people who have amazing talents living right here in our town and within our shire.
“We have a young lady that once did a stint as a radio announcer in Melbourne, married a farmer and rejuvenated this festival, while taking on many chairperson positions of numerous committees, a shire
councillor who has incredible artistic talent and can paint amazing props for our local theatre productions, young writers and poets who contribute to Hay Wire, a
postmaster who produces incredible stained glass windows, great historians who have written books on our bookshelves, politicians and famous sporting talents who have travelled interstate to compete in their field of sporting prowess and so the list goes on.
“These people don’t advertise their talents but somewhere and at some stage it comes out.
“What really makes this talent special is that it comes at no cost, as the person is usually a volunteer.
“This is what we have in our country towns.
“We might whinge here and there, watch families come and go, see farms getting bigger and farming families and town families move to start a different life elsewhere, see sons and daughters choosing different career paths, see our grandparents retire to the ocean and then return to rest at our hospital, watch each generation go through the stages of life, witness the trauma of a fire, the joy of the lake filling up in a decade or two, attend the wedding of someone in this town and go to a loved one’s funeral at Nippering.
“And while this is all happening, people are caring about each other.
“You may not know the person who sends you a card when a loved one dies or a trauma or joy happens in your life – but that’s what country people do.
“As I was helping yesterday setting up the children’s art display, I noticed the volunteers helping set up for today’s festival.
“Sure there were the usuals who wear many hats, but there were new residents and their young children embracing the busy bee with complete ease and enjoyment; this is community.
“This is Dumbleyung, and as I looked across the oval and saw all the flags flying for the gymkhana, I knew our festival was going to be just great.
“What fun.
“We have a triathlon, a gymkhana, great homemade food, music, photography, art, side shows, great fellowship, catching up with our family and friends – and most of all freedom, freedom for our children to wander around with their friends and have a great day.
“Where in the world today can we do that?
“I applaud the volunteers and the people of Dumbleyung, Kukerin, Moulyinning, Ballaying, Behn Ord, Bullock Hills/Bibikin , Coomelberrup, Datatine, Dongolocking, Kilburn, North Moulyinning, Nairibin/Brambrae, Nippering, North Nippering, Mount
Pleasant and Coarring, Pingarning, Rosehill, Wishbone and beyond the Fence Road, you are here today supporting our festival, you keep this town growing, you put out fires and you save lives, you cry and you
laugh, you marry and you create the next generation and while this is all happening your council and shire workers are caring about you.
“The road you travel on, the swimming pool you swim in, the oval and sporting facility you play at, the hospital you visit, the police station our shire president fought to re-open, the patio or shed you want to get permission to build, the rates you pay to help us provide these services and the democratic decisions we make which affect your well being, all this is keeping the community of Dumbleyung strong.
“You see, it doesn’t matter what your contribution is to our community, it’s the mere fact that you contribute that keeps us strong.
“Thankyou for your attendance, your volunteerism, your help, your choice to live here, your choice to stay, your choice to visit and your choice to return.
“Thankyou Murray, Nicky, Marisa, Emma, Beth, Melissa, Coady, Valerie and Craig, Jane, Zoey, Carmen and
Heather, the Dumbleyung Events Committee, the triathlon
organisers, volunteers, participants and spectators.
“Enjoy the day, it’s yours.”
Cr Brown said when travelling home in the evening after the festival, her 11 year old son said to
her, “I wish the festival was every weekend.”
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