It was like having a proper job. We started on Monday morning. After a pleasant social weekend, meeting up with five key Capricornian contacts, we had a program to work on with some key dates in place. Mine is 4 July, and a public meeting (Now at the Fitzroy Motor Boat Club). Graham has a parade date for Yeppoon, with a supporting program of community banner, flag, and lantern making.
So we did some media work, for which we scored a Rockhampton Morning Bulletin and WIN story on Tuesday. Both of these were good, positive stories.
We didn’t see or get to record WIN (we can now), but those who mentioned it to us were favourable.
Today we took our “Bob Katter Peace Show” for an outing to test out various peaces of equipment, and watch how the East St Mall operates. In reality it used to be a Mall until the Council reopened East Street to vehicles and created what must be one of the ugliest public spaces in this part of the Galaxy.
But there’s a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. The auto-teller is very popular. The publican of the Oxford Hotel found our very existance obnoxious and wanted us taken away – so we adopted the Hotel as our sponsor, and gave them littles advertisements as part of the spiel.
Some people gave a listen. A few dozen took leaflets. A whole bunch of drivers and passengers paid fleeting attention. How fleeting depended on traffic conditions. East Street is heavily calmed. Sedated even.
We had some technical issues, which are now hopefully fixed.
My Katter costume got a great reception from Graeme, media, police, and the amorphous general public. Instantly recognisable, and the right image for this town. I got heaps of recognition, and a lot of friendly smiles and waves.
Tonight Jim Dowling and Culley Palmer dropped in to have a yarn and a look around. They be coming with me in the morning for the Second Katter field test, and maybe do some media.
You can probably tell from the photographs that I’m having heaps of fun.
We’d met a travelling Japanese heritage violinist at the Mall (performing in tuxedo) who helped us out “for peace”, and Graeme remarked to me later on that the presence of serendipity was a sign one is on the right track. I’ve been noticing a lot of serendipity lately. The Fitzroy Motor Boat Club is very much in the same spirit as the Cairns Yacht Club, and I can still enjoy a meal there…. for a couple of months anyway.