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OUR AIM: "To actively
participate with other Scottish and Celtic Groups to maintain, promote and
advance the Scots Culture and Heritage in Australia"
Our community has around
150 financial members and consists of both home-grown expatriate Scots and
Australians of Scottish descent. Our membership is also open to anyone
with an interest in the Scottish culture. We hold monthly meetings at "Yungaba"
a beautiful old home in Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, which became the
Immigration Receiving Depot in the 1880s. It is now a meeting place for
various ethnic groups. At these meetings we plan our involvement in
activities within the Scottish Community.
At these events we set up a
large tent with tables displaying reference material and books on
Scotland, Scottish history and genealogy, and a set of tartan swatch
books. With the reference material we are able to assist visitors to seek
out the origins of their names no matter how obscure the name may be as
long as it is of Scottish origin. Once the clan or sept is established we
can then use the tartan swatch books to give them a view and feel of their
tartan. It is much better than looking at a photograph. We can then show
our visitors the likely areas on maps that their name is associated with.
While we do not charge for the service there is a donation box which
occasionally has a coin fed into it.
We also sell crafts of a
Scottish nature and homemade edibles such as shortbread, tablet and whisky
marmalade. These items are made by our members to assist with our fund
raising. We also run a small raffle at these occasions as well as at our
meetings. The proceeds raised from these activities are used to fund
Tartan Day each year.
Six years ago the first
Tartan Day was organized. This is the major event on our calendar. It
started out as a very small affair, due to finances and location. It has
grown over the intervening years. In 2000 the Clan displays and stalls
were held indoors at City Hall with some activities in the square outside.
Up to and including last year, we adhered strictly to holding this event
on July 1. Last year was our first venture into the big league. We held
the event outdoors at the Cultural Forecourt at South Bank Parklands
beside the Brisbane River, an inner city community area that, in 1988, was
the scene of Expo 88. It was a fantastic success and we were overwhelmed
by the crowd. The event ran from 9.00am until 4.30pm with pipe bands,
highland dancing and live music all day. At our debriefing it was decided
that, from then on, a Sunday event was a must to enable the maximum number
of visitors to help celebrate the event. So the Sunday nearest to July 1
was decided as the date for future Tartan Day events.
This year, 2002, 30th of
June was Tartan Day and what a day it was. The numbers appeared to be
double those of last year. Once again the scene was the Cultural Forecourt
of South Bank. Considering that five weeks before there was doubt whether
our event would be able to go ahead due to difficulty in obtaining Public
Liability insurance for community events. One month before the event,
insurance was guaranteed and we moved into action with advertising to be
organised, raffle tickets to be printed, pipe bands to be confirmed, Royal
Scottish Country Dance Society to be contacted and so on.
We were there at 7.30am on
the day setting up our displays and organising all the other stalls and
performers. A local Ceilidh band "Scotch on the Rocks" accompanied by
singers Brian Bisset (presenter of the Scottish program on 4EB) and
Warwick Jacks, who were joint MCs for the day, opened the festivities at
9.00am. From that time it was non-stop. Highland dancers, Royal Scottish
Country Dance Society dancers, Gaelic Dream, ten pipe bands and other
performers entertained the crowds continuously. The massed bands performed
twice during the day led by "Blizzard" a Highland bull from a local
breeder.
The stalls flanked the
entertainment area in bright blue skies along the bank of the Brisbane
River. "All things Tartan", "Highland House" and "A Touch of Tartan" were
there to sell everything from kilts and scarves to Scottish bumper
stickers. A genealogy stall from The Family History group was set up and
was doing very good business. In one corner of the field was a family of
Vikings with their Viking house and their various implements of daily use,
including working tools and weapons, on display and even their children in
appropriate authentic wear. There were four Imps, which were Scottish
built cars of the sixties and seventies, on display. The cars generated
huge interest, with many people reminiscing their younger days of
ownership and some even announcing that they had worked in the factory in
Paisley, Scotland in the manufacture of these cars.
Keen interest was shown in
the very enthusiastic young dance troupe "Gaelic Dream" who specialise in
Scottish dancing of a style that Highland dancing would have evolved from.
They perform dances choreographed by themselves to suit traditional and
contemporary Scottish music. The troupe gets huge audience support
because they are so vibrantly different. This family group is also a
member of our Australian Scottish Community.
Three of our members are
involved in the presentation of the Scottish program on our local ethnic
community radio station, 4EB 98.1FM, each Thursday from 2.15pm to 4.00pm.
The station is funded by its membership within the various ethnic
community groups and broadcast time is allocated according to the size of
the group's membership. Many of the members of the Australian Scottish
Community Qld (Inc) are also members of the 4EB Scottish group. The
Scottish program is gaining in popularity and membership of the Scottish
group is growing steadily. The program features Scottish music and
Scottish performers, a Burns recitation and a weekly recipe of Scots
origin. Listeners are kept up-to-date with the latest news events from
Scotland and reminded of Scottish upcoming events.
President: Ian Campbell -
Phone: 07 3359 8195
Vice President: Darcy Maddock 07 3855 1072
The Australian Scottish Community (Qld) Inc.
PO Box 3188,
South Brisbane Qld 4101
Australia
Email: broker@big.net.au.
Web site:
The Australian Scottish Community (Qld) Inc.. |
