Let’s celebrate our Seniors… together!
It’s the largest seniors’ festival in the Southern Hemisphere and we are gearing up for some big celebrations with our seniors!
Our seniors have had a front row seat for some of the world’s darkest and most transformational periods. From depressions to periods of economic growth, world wars, royal coronations, from witnessing the advent of radio and television to the new digital world of Google and smart phones, they’ve been part of a changing society.
Go back 70 years, for example, the year is 1953. A year where the world watched the coronation of 26-year-old Queen Elizabeth II. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay performed the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. The first colour television sets went on sale. Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, and I Love Lucy was one of the popular shows on the box.
80 years ago takes us back to 1943. Australia’s population was just over 7 million people. Mick Jagger was born. World War II continues with Australia and America recapturing Buna, New Guinea. John Curtin was our Prime Minister while Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Construction of the Pentagon in Washington DC was completed and The Great Depression ended in the United States. Dark Felt was the winner of the Melbourne Cup.
With this year’s Seniors Festival theme being ‘Celebrate Together’, we are taking the time to celebrate the contributions that some remarkable seniors have made to regional Australia.
The first Country Women’s Association was formed in 1922 by Grace Munro and Florence Gordon, due to growing concerns about the poor quality of life and limited services available to women and children living in the country. Their work and legacy continue today with over 8,000 women belonging to over 370 local branches.
The late Mayor of Cobar Liliane Brady OAM was first elected to Cobar Shire Council in 1976, advocating for the Cobar community and serving as Mayor for almost 23 years – making her NSW’s longest ever serving female mayor.
Rod Laver AC MBE, born in Rockhampton in 1938, is the only tennis player, male or female, to win all four major titles in the same calendar year, twice in singles, in 1962 and 1969. He is the first male player out of two to be winner and runner up at all four grand slams, followed only by someone called Roger Federer… that Roger’s name slightly rings a bell…
Our seniors are our mothers, fathers, grandparents, great grandparents, matriarchs, patriarchs and giver of life advice – no matter how hard it might be to hear sometimes! They can whip up a storm in the kitchen, spin a yarn like no tomorrow and seem to be able to ‘MacGyver’ anything with the simplest tool or appliance. And, for a lot of them, they paved the way for all of us today.
So this Senior’s Festival, let’s celebrate the contributions that our seniors make to our society; our lives wouldn’t be what they are today, in the present, without the foundation of their lifelong work, striving and achievements.
