Public carries the Games spirit

By Kath Gannaway
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges pulled out all stops last week to provide a huge welcome to the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay and an outstanding community celebration.
Twenty-two runners in all, most members of the Yarra Ranges community, were cheered on by family, friends and members of the public as they carried the baton through Yarra Glen and Healesville on the Monday afternoon (20 February) and from Healesville Sanctuary along Maroondah Highway towards Marysville the next morning.
A spectacular community celebration in Queen’s Park celebrated the region’s Indigenous heritage, the shire’s second-team connection with New Zealand through the Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre, and the diverse talents of hundreds of local residents and community groups.
Highlights of the baton run included the handing over by Yarra Glen resident and Shire of Yarra Ranges Indigenous development officer Anne Jenkins to sulky driver Gordon Rothacker of Yan Yean who took the Games icon on a trot around the Yarra Valley Racing Centre.
Yarra Ranges Citizen of the Year Valda Woodman passed the baton to Wandin resident and Blue Heelers actor John Wood who carried it through a cheering crowd at the Queen’s Park oval to the stage.
Millgrove baton runner Robert Hendy posed for photographs with Karak Jnr at Healesville Sanctuary and ran through an honour-guard of Badger Creek Primary School students as he set the baton on its way again on Tuesday morning.
Racing driver Peter Brock was cheered along Maroondah Highway, stopping to sign autographs after handing on to Healesville’s Michael Morley who left the East End to a blast of sirens and horns from timber trucks which lined either side of the highway.
In Marysville and Buxton too, local ‘heroes’ were cheered as they proudly held the baton up to the waving crowds.
School children played a special role in Marysville where teacher and community worker Elaine Postlethwaite was a baton bearer and in Buxton where local primary school teacher and former Healesville High School principal Denis Brown carried the baton past the school gate.
An estimated 2-3000 people stayed on at Queen’s Park into Monday night for a program of performances which included a Wurundjeri welcome to land, the Aboriginal Children’s Choir, Kulcha Boyz Aboriginal dance troupe, didgeridoo player Shane Charles, The Little Yarra Steiner Ensemble and the telling of the River Story narrated by Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy Wandin and enacted by a cast of hundreds of school children dressed as native animals and birds.
The Ngai Tahu dancers had the audience enthralled, enchanted and amused with their engaging performance and, bringing the show to a close, legendary Aboriginal singer Archie Roach was also a huge hit.
The evening celebrations were, fittingly, dedicated to the life and memory of Wurundjeri Nurungaeta (headman) James ‘Juby’ Wandin, who died just an hour before the celebration began.