Friday, December 29, 2017

CURLEWS SEND GREETINGS; ISLAND CAUGHT SHORT-AGAIN

HAPPY NEW YEAR  from  the  Magnetic  Island  Curlews  whose forebears serenaded  Captain Cook  when  he  dropped  anchor and named the place. The  Curlews have inspired artists , wowed  overseas backpackers, featured on T-shirts  and  tea towels  and  largely been overlooked by  the tourism  pushers  of  Townsville  who go in for Koalas,  imitation Melbourne  lanes  and  possible  copies of  Kiwi , Darwin  and   Cairns  attractions .   
Curlew tea towel  designed by Magnetic Island artist  Steve Crowe in 1995 .

New Year's Eve celebrations  on the island  are  a  major annual  event , attracting many backpackers, visitors  from the mainland  and overseas. It includes a large fireworks display which scares the daylights out of  birds and animals on  the  mainly  national  park  island. 
 
As the ferries  pulled into the terminal on Friday disgorging  a  colourful , happy throng  they were  still  greeted by  tattered , torn and   collapsed  remnants  of the   huge Welcome  to Magnetic Island  banners , covered previously in this blog ,   which  originally hid from public gaze  the  unsightly   hole which  has  existed for more than a decade . The powers  that  be in Townsville , who  refer to the island as the city's Jewel in the Crown ,  still  had not been able to  sort out the long running  banner  snafu . 
Short back and sides  mystery  island.
 
And near  the Townsville ferry terminal , still being displayed , was  the large billboard  boasting  that the   world's  best  rugby players are  coming to the city . Only trouble  is  that  they  came  and  went  about  two  months  ago.