Ancient fragments of Halley’s Comet will light up the sky this week, one of the meteoric highlights for avid stargazers in 2021. Astrophysicist Professor Jonti Horner said the famous comet had left behind a trail of debris along its orbit around the Sun for tens of thousands of years.
Earth passes through that debris twice a year, with the Eta Aquariids the better of the two meteor showers that result,†he said. Keep an eye out for this before sunrise on each morning between May 3 and 10 – they will be fast meteors and are often bright, with smoky trains.â€
Professor Horner said those who braved the pre-dawn hours to observe the Eta Aquariids would have the chance to lie beneath a spectacular sky. The Milky Way will be high overhead, with Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon high to the east and bright, fast meteors streaking across the sky from an origin near the eastern horizon.
While not one of the big three, Eta Aquariids stand clear as the best of the rest of the annual showers, yielding a fine display in the two or three hours before dawn,†he said.
In addition to the Eta Aquariids light show, there’s plenty of astronomical activity to get excited about…and you don’t need a high-tech telescope to get the full experience.
We’ll get a good view of Mercury later in the month as the planet reaches greatest eastern elongation, meaning that’s a good time to look for the innermost planet on the evening of May 17, and for a week or so around then,†Professor Horner said.
Also, get ready for a Super Blood Moon – a clash of two lunar phenomena – on May 26th.
A ‘super’ Moon is a full Moon that occurs at the same time that our satellite is at its closest point to the Earth, while a ‘blood’ Moon describes a total lunar eclipse when the Moon passes deep into the shadow cast by the Earth.†Submitted by: Rhianwen Whitney E: rhianwen.whitney@usq.edu.au,
After the ANZAC Day remembrances, have you thought about what you’ll be doing for the rest of the day? You could consider spending some time at Highfields Pioneer Village.
The day will feature a tribute to the Light Horse and you’ll be able to view shearing and learn about beekeeping and butter making, take rides on the miniature steam train and vintage bus rides, there’ll be tours of the Big Cow and food and billy tea and damper will be available.
Highfields Pioneer Village will also be presenting the 25th of April Concert with a lineup of local entertainers including Terry Arnold, Brendon Walmsley, Michelle Schneider, Owen Ray and Sue Ray, Jim Strohfeld and Wayne Young.
The Concert is proudly supported by Travellong, Nerada Tea, KoolKat Quilting and Hyfeed. The Village will be open from 10am to 4pm, and is located 15 kms north of Toowoomba at 73 Wirraglen Road, Highfields. Phone 4696 6309.
On Monday the 26th of April there will be a Women’s Colour Blast at Newtown Park in Toowoomba to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia, and Ovarian Cancer Australia. We currently have over 80 ladies signed up but would like to get over 100 there. This event is open to women of all ages and will consist of the following:
10AM Colour Run – 2km and 4km option
12pm-4pm – 6 a side social cricket games (13 ages and over)
12.30pm-2pm – Junior Girls Colour Blast (12 and under)
We are looking to raise as much money as possible for our chosen foundations and also get as many girls as possible involved in cricket.
We will be running a sausage sizzle and selling drinks on the day, as well as having some inflatables set up for kids. We will also be running a raffle where people can win the following prizes:
Signed Women’s Brisbane Heat Cap
Signed Women’s Brisbane Heat Jersey
Signed Women’s Queensland Fire Cricket Bat
$400 Grey Niccols Cricket Bat – donated by Rebel Sport Toowoomba
$550 Personality Profile Session – donated by JP Smith Recruitment and Human Resources
$200 1 on 1 Leadership Coaching Session – donated by Linda Bayfield Consulting
Submitted by: ADAM PAROZÂ |Â Cricket Manager – Darling Downs & South West QLD
Queensland Cricket | 154 Stephen St | Toowoomba Queensland 4350
Direct: +61 7 3292 3199 | Mobile: +61 419 725 834 Adam.Paroz@qldcricket.com.au | www.qldcricket.com.au
Join us at Cobb+Co Museum on Saturday 24th April as we celebrate the following day, ANZAC Day, with our Feature Artisan Ryan Carnie of Clyde Park Collections.
Ryan will be demonstrating his metal art in our blacksmith shop, putting the final touches on his ANZAC hats. These hats will be available for sale in the Museum Shop, and Ryan will be donating the profit from all sales to the Mates4Mates charity in support of current and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members.
If you purchase a hat, Ryan will also offer a metal stamping free of charge, personalising it with your initials.
When:Â 10am – 2pm, Saturday 24 April
Please note: The museum will be closed ANZAC Day, Sunday 25 April.
Free with admission, please phone the museum on (07) 4659 4900 if you require further information.
Submitted by: Veronica Dawson Marketing Coordinator Cobb+Co Museum 27 Lindsay Street | Toowoomba | Queensland 4350 | Australia t. 07 4659 4914 |Â cobbandco.qm.qld.gov.au
Australia’s longest-running national conservation group, the Australian Conservation Foundation is launching a group in Toowoomba.
An event to launch the new ACF Community Toowoomba Group was held at the Queen’s Park Markets on Sunday 18th April. ACF Community Toowoomba will meet monthly and run a range of activities, from guided nature walks to skills and training.
Nadia Emblen
‘ACF is a reputable, longstanding group,’ Toowoomba founder Nadia Emblen said. ‘ACF has played a key role in some of Australia’s most important environmental wins, such as the formation of Landcare and protection of the Great Barrier Reef.’
‘We’re looking forward to meeting interested locals and getting to know more prospective members – everyone who loves nature and wants action to tackle climate change is invited to join – we now have over 2,000 members in our region.’
‘It’s great that everyone now has the opportunity to meet up and get involved with activities that celebrate our region and Australia’s natural heritage,’ Nadia said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation is a non-partisan group with more than 700,000 participants across the nation.
Damon Phillips, RASQ’s Chief Executive Officer, says 12 months ago we gathered here to excitedly talk about the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show and the impact it would have on the Toowoomba and Darling Downs Community.
Unfortunately only 3 days later, all mass gatherings were cancelled and 6 days prior to our first exhibitors arriving the 2020 Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show was cancelled for only the third time in our proud 160 year history.
What followed can only be described as demoralising, heartbreaking and down to earth soul searching. Could we as an organisation, solely reliant on events continue? Could we support our staff, volunteers and numerous community organisations that call the Toowoomba Showgrounds home?
We estimate that the cancellation of the 2020 Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show and subsequent closure of the grounds cost the society in the vicinity of $350-$400,000. It seems a long time ago. Thanks to Job Keeper we were able to retain most of our staff. We were able to keep the doors open and give 20 odd caravaners who were unable to travel a place to stay.
We were able to commence and complete numerous capital works projects and thanks to Heritage Bank we were able to refund each and every competitor and site holder their 2020 entry and site fees. Talk about putting people first. I must admit that being able to wear shorts to work and going home at 4 o’clock was enjoyable, although nothing compares with the excitement of staging great community events.
Late last year two very exciting things happened. Firstly we approached Clive Berghofer to fund a 5 year capital works program aimed at attracting new events to better secure our financial future. Clive committed $2 million of his own personal funds towards our projects. As he said, without our showgrounds as our community hub, what else as a community do we have?â€
Additionally Toowoomba Regional Council committed $150,000 to the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show for 2021. The fact is without the Toowoomba Regional Council support we would not be standing here today.
Anyway on with the show. For our committee there are 4 main objectives. Provide a conduit for competition. Educate young people about the importance of agriculture. Entertain all our patrons and do so in the most COVID safe environment as possible.
COMPETITIONÂ Â Â Â (Click HERE For Tickets) 160 years ago, pastoralists from across the region gathered to compete to find the best bull, cow, horse, pig, crops or rooster. Their aim was not to win the blue ribbon but to improve the livestock and crops of the colony. This tradition continues today.
Dairy cattle are judged early in the week.
Horses, with almost 1500 entries start arriving on Thursday for Friday, Saturday and Sunday judging.
Stud Beef cattle with over 200 entries are judged on Friday and Saturday with Led Steers judged on Sunday.
Show dogs will be judged on Thursday, Friday and Saturday while Sheep Dog Trials, with record entries, will be judged from Friday to Sunday.
Other livestock to be judged include meat sheep, poultry and pigs and all will be on display for the 3 days.
A number of our livestock competitions were cancelled due to COVID but we will have animals on display such as alpacas, dairy and mohair goats. Unfortunately a number of competitions have been cancelled this year including Woodcraft, Inter-home and Apiculture although Handicraft, Cooking, Floriculture, Floral Art, Fine Art, Art in Bark, Photography and Leather have all attracted significant entries.
Home-grown Produce will be virtual allowing so many more individuals and schools to enter. I am looking forward to winning a blue ribbon for my marvellous crop of basil.
Of course any show is not complete without the traditional woodchop and chainsaw competitions.
Education continues to be the cornerstone of what we are aiming to achieve as an agricultural society. Educating, particularly young people, is part of our DNA. We will continue to do this across a number of platforms.
Costa returns to The Heritage Bank Royal Show and brings Dirt Girl for the first time. Paul West also returns and his passion for sustainable farming is infectious. For the first time, with the support of the Queenland Government, Heritage Bank and Stockyard Beef we will be hosting an Ag Long Lunch each day of the show.
Local school children will join farmers and industry to share a meal and learn about where their food comes from. Early this year, in partnership with the Mulberry Project we planted a corn crop on site. This will be harvested and enjoyed during the show.
In addition our very popular Animal Nursery, Working Dairy, Historical Machinery displays and Little Hands on the Farm programs will continue to engage, entertain and educate our patrons.
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENTÂ Â Â (Click HERE For Tickets)Once in the door pay no more has been our mantra for many years and the 2021 Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show is no exception. There are over 50 things to see and do that will not cost our patrons a cent once they enter the gates.
New attractions this year include the Dinkum Dinosaurs displays and shows and Lukes Reptile Kingdom; the largest mobile reptile display in Australia. Also for the first time will be Eronis Circus with a larger tent than previous circuses and more animals, clowns and entertainers.
Spirits of the Red Sand also makes its debut at the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show. Voted best local tourism attraction in the state via an RACQ survey, this interactive indigenous show will be staged twice daily and again in the
main arena on both Friday and Saturday nights. We are very grateful to Tourism and Events Queensland for their support in bringing this attraction to Toowoomba.
Our ever-popular fashion parades, jet pack super heroes, dock dogs, family stage and pig racing all return. When the sun goes down the main arena comes to life with monster trucks, Spirit of the Red Sand, Vintage Sprint Cars, Motorbikes, 2 fireworks shows and the most amazing laser light show Toowoomba has ever seen. I can’t wait!
Queensland Shows has developed a COVID Safe industry plan for all shows in the state. This was a significant step forward to ensure the Queensland show circuit kicked off in Stanthorpe in late January.
The plan covers everything from contact tracing to cleaning to physical distancing. Unfortunately, one thing it doesn’t cover is events attracting in excess of 10,000 patrons. Enter the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show.
As the first show society established in Queensland in 1860, the RASQ continues to lead the show movement in the state. The Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show will be the first large show held in Queensland and as such we feel
we have a duty to get it right.
We have been working very closely with Qld Health to develop our COVID Safe plan which is currently with the Chief Medical Officer. We are confident that the decision will be made very shortly to increase our capacity above 10,000
patrons per day.
We have implemented cleaning protocols that will ensure that all amenities are cleaned every hour. There will be COVID Marshalls at all major attractions ensuring protocols are adhered to. There will be over 60 hand sanitising stations located around the grounds.
Every person entering the grounds will be scanned in and scanned out. We will know exactly who is on the grounds at any one time. No ticket. No entry.
We will monitor our pavilions and our inside areas to ensure crowd limits are not exceeded. We will have appropriate signage throughout the grounds highlighting the important COVID Safe messaging.
Students at Glenvale State School have recorded COVID Safe messages that will be publicised during the show. We are very proud of our community engagement and the way the local community has got behind us.
We are encouraging everyone to pre-purchase their tickets online. Everyone entering the grounds must register. No ticket, No entry. Logistically this has been a significant cost to the Society but one that we are very committed to.
We have maintained our ticket prices. On Friday, the show holiday, and Saturday adult tickets are $20, concession $13 and children over 5 years of age $7. On Sunday we have reduced the prices to $17 for adults, $10 for concession and $5 for children.
We have also moved the show days. Our aim is to spread the crowd over 3 days.
The show holiday will now be Friday, 16th April. The show will operate between 9am and 9pm on Friday and Saturday and 9am and 4pm on Sunday.
(L to R) Jan Johnson (Heritage Bank), Damon Phillips (RASQ CEO), Mark Freeman RASQ Vice President), Andrew Fox (Heritage Bank)
This has been a challenging year for everyone. The RASQ is committed to staging an entertaining, educational, competitive and COVID Safe event for the Toowoomba and Darling Downs community. We invite you to join with us on this amazing, exciting and ground-breaking journey.
Darling Downs Health has re-opened the drive-in COVID-19 testing site at the Baillie Henderson Hospital in response to the evolving situation in Brisbane.
The Baillie Henderson testing site in Toowoomba will remain temporarily open 8.30am to 4pm until Thursday, 1 April 2021. Entry to the test site is via the Mort Street entrance only.
Testing helps us find as many cases in the community as quickly as possible. This will ensure we are doing everything we can to manage Queensland’s response to the pandemic.
If you have any of the following symptoms, no matter how mild, get tested.
– Fever
– Sore throat
– Runny Nose
– Diarrhoea
– Loss of smell and/or taste
– Cough
– Shortness of breath
– Fatigue
– Vomiting or nausea.
Alternative testing locations to the Charlton BP and Baillie Henderson Hospital sites can be found at www.qld.gov.au/covid19testing
We are closely monitoring the evolving situation relating to testing demand and are prepared to keep our pop-up drive-in testing sites open longer if needed. We are also prepared to open further pop-up testing sites at short notice if required.
If you are unwell with COVID-19 symptoms and planning to present to one of our hospital facilities for testing, please phone ahead to discuss your arrival with staff. In an emergency, please phone Triple Zero (000).
We ask anyone presenting for COVID-19 testing to understand that waiting times at our testing locations can vary. Please be prepared to wait and bring your Medicare card and other items you may need (for example, your mobile phone, phone charger, medications you may need to take while waiting, food and
water).
For more information about our testing sites, please visit www.health.qld.gov.au/darlingdowns or phone the Darling Downs Health COVID-19 Hotline on 1800 490 468. Submitted by: Darling Downs Health Media Team
a: Cnr Hogg and Tor Sts, Toowoomba Qld 4350
Can you take a picture worth a thousand wordsâ€? If yes, then you are invited to participate in an exciting citizen science style PhotoVoice project. Photovoice is a long-established method in community capacity building. As the name implies, the process uses self-generated images and captions to help participants have a ‘voice’ and articulate their interests and concerns around some problematic situation. For example, the community impacts of environmental pollution or uncontrolled climate change.â€
Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 students and their home-schooled equivalents across the Toowoomba region are invited to get snap happy and find their voice in the lead up to the 2021 Youth Summit. Proudly hosted by Householders’ Options to Protect the Environment (HOPE) Inc. and St Ursula’s College, the free virtual Youth Summit is being held from the 19th to the 22nd of April and will address current topical issues relating to the environment, social justice, animal welfare/conservation and heritage conservation and protection.
The PhotoVoice citizen’s science†project welcomes youth to submit a photo, short video or drawing/sketch of an issue that they find concerning, type up a short caption to match, and submit to HOPE by the 16th of April. This caption should aim to be about 30 words long and explain why the picture was taken, what it means to the student, why it is important, what issue it highlights and why it does so effectively, and what we as a community can do to improve the issue. Youth are urged to be respectful of the people’s personal space and privacy – always ask permission first! Try not to take close-up portraits, and instead try to take images of things rather than people. Make sure to stay safe, check-in with teachers and parents, don’t go adventuring alone, and avoid hazardous situations. Some jumping off points are shown below but students are encouraged to get creative and inspired and choose whichever topic sparks their interest.
Submissions for the PhotoVoice Project are due by Friday16th April, 2021 and are to be submitted to HOPE via email, Google Drive or any other easily accessible platform. For photos and drawings, please submit a scanned A4 PhotoVoice submission and for videos, please attach a link to your email. Youth are asked to include their name, year level and school in their submission.
Submitted by:
