Glads 1 Carnies 0

For the benefit of young persons (and others not familiar with the early works of Dame Edna Everage) the shows by his alter ego, Bazza Humphries used to feature a lot of floral art, mainly around Gladioli and Carnations.  As I have commented elsewhere, in Strine those big words get shortened to 'glads' and 'carnies'.

A little more Ocker nostalgia before we get to the meat of the post.  Gladys Moncrieff was a rather famous Australian singer inn the mid 20th Century.  She was known as "Our Glad" and since she shuffled off the ultimate stage in 1976 this title is now available for use by Gladys Berejiklian, the current Premier of NSW.  (At least one commentator has described being appointed to this position as " being handed the poisoned chalice".)

Anyway she has decided to hose out the scuppers of her Cabinet and replace some of the denizens with others.  It being NSW Parliament this probably just means "same-same but different". However the SMH had a story on 29 January that she was going to announce the outcome of this process at an event in Queanbeyan - but they didn't give any details.

I consulted her website, and that of our local member Giovanni Domenico (John) Barilaro (who is also the Deputy Premier and Leader of the NSW Nationals).  Neither gave a clue, so I rang the Queanbeyan Visitor Information Centre (QVIC) where a nice lady said she'd noticed the story but hadn't been given any information.  She gave me the number of Barilaro's office to try.  I tried both his Office and his Ministerial Office (and the electorate office of the Premier).  All voicemail!

Then the nice lady rang me back (at her own initiative: thank you Ursula) to say she'd gone lateral and rung the cops who had told her it was on in Queanbeyan Park between 1100 and 1130.  I thanked her and commented that I'd decided not to ring them as knowing the attitude of most NSW cops to have done so would have got me on a terrorist watchlist.   She said she was careful to say she was from QVIC.  (This does dispel my thoughts that a possible reason for the silence on the location was Plod-induced security.  So it's a choice between they:

1. hadn't worked out the venue until the last minute; or
2. have been to the Luke Foley School of Political Invisibility.)

Having been told where to go (a common occurrence) I thought it would be interesting to see what was on offer and went in to town.  As I drove in I heard the ABC News saying that the Premier was about to make an announcement having chosen to do so  ".. in National Party territory."  That made it sound as though the Nationals were her enemy, rather than members of her Government.

The first sight in the park was a cricket match.

Then I found the event happening at the bandstand.  Here are the Premier and Deputy Premier talking to the media.

It was hard to hear what was being said as they had no public address system - it seemed to be purely a media event.  I didn't want to get too close but here is what I think is a nice snap of the Premier.

Now a bit more Strine for you.  As well as being the abbreviation for 'carnation' the word 'carnie' is also used to save breath when talking about 'carnival workers'.  The next snap shows a media circus - which is probably different to a carnival. Thus Carnies still 0.

 A good carnival would include a freak show.  However I prefer to regard this as merely a leftist 'rent a (small) crowd' and thus maintain a ducks egg for Carnies.

The most interesting aspect of this was that as far as I could see there was no-one from the Liberal or National Parties present.  Could they not round up 50 folk in a few hours - perhaps the cell-block leader approach is too reminiscent of Socialists such as Julius Nyere, Ho Chi Minh or Mao Tse Tong?  A second point of interest is how the rent a crowd found out about the venue to get there when I and the QVIC lady had difficulty? Do they have comrades constantly shadowing John Barilaro?.

Having fulfilled my objective of seeing Glad in operation I then went for a prowl around the weir to log a few birds.  I meant to focus on this pooch which was having a lovely swim in the waters behind the weir, but when looked at on the 'pooter my camera had decided the grass had was more important!.

 I don't know what this farm duck had bred with but it seems to have turned out chicks very like Mum.  The dog was removed from the water as they hove into view.

 A pair of Kayakers were enjoying the River ..

 ... and a young person was enjoying the new water play area.

At 30^oC I was tempted to join him.