POETS BREAKFAST September 22, 2007

Poets head for Kenilworth again… things could be verse!

It’s getting towards September again, when, each year, there’s something of a migration of poets to Kenilworth for the annual Poets’ Breakfast. As Part of the Kenilworth Celebrates! Festival and organized by the Conondale Range Committee and the First Responders, the breakfast has gained in popularity each year.

This year’s event, on Saturday September 22nd (8 to 10.30am) will see some familiar poets plus some new faces. There’s a great symbiosis about the Conondale Range Committee’s Breakfast; the audience loves the poets and the poets regard the audience as among the best.

Host, popular local poet Ian Mackay, tells us that no two bush poets can agree about exactly what bush poetry is. The Kenilworth performers, he tells us, have very diverse styles yet share a common ability to make audiences smile, laugh and empathise.

The arrangements for this year's breakfast have changed slightly. While the venue in the showgrounds adjacent to the hall is exactly the same, the entry and catering arrangements are different. Entry price for the performance is $5 and no bookings are required. As always CRC will be providing Real Coffee and breakfast is available from a menu selection which starts at 8 to 10.30am.

As well as the Breakfast, there’s opportunity to take in the excellent art exhibition in the adjoining hall.

Come and see why people come back, year after year.

CRC JOINS FIGHT IN OPPOSING PROPOSED TRAVESTON DAM

FRIDAY MAY 12 2006

The Conondale Range Committee, one of the Sunshine Coast’s longest established conservation groups, has joined the opposition to the building of a dam on the Mary River.

Committee President Ian Mackay has criticized all major political parties who seem to see dams as the only way to supply water.

“What has turned this drought into a water crisis for south-east Queensland is the fact that we are totally, one hundred percent, dependent on dams,” he said.

“Future generations will look back in bewilderment at governments that persisted in putting their best farming land under water,” Mr Mackay said.

“We have one of two rivers in the world with lungfish and we contemplate building a dam across the middle of it.”

“It’s not as if there aren’t alternatives. The Brisbane City Council has just announced a major expansion of its rainwater tank rebate program due to unprecendented public support and yet the government persists in building more dams.”

He predicted that the decision to build a Mary River Dam was the government’s biggest political gamble to date, saying that opposition was widespread, not just from national environment groups but from the wider community.

“With the ABC’s biggest ever online poll running at a resounding 86% “no” to more dams, the ripples from the decision to build this dam will be felt in marginal electorates across the state,” Mr Mackay said.

NATIONAL HERITAGE LISTING APPLICATION

The Conondale Range Committee have recently nominated the Kenilworth Bluff to be included on the National Heritage List which is currently under develpment by the Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH).

Read more about the National Heritage List
See our submission