Events

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Jondaryan - Australian Heritage Festival (Outback Festivals)

The Australian Heritage Festival is a re-enactment and a celebration of the pioneering lifestyles and skills of our rural forbears.

From the sheep, bullocks and horses that accompanied the first settlers on the Darling Downs, through to the steam engines and tractors and trucks that transformed pasture into farmland - it is all there for you to see.

Visitors can taste the food that sustained the early settlers, cooked as it was then on the open fire, experience the hardships of life on the land a century ago. You can see the wool come off the sheep’s back and be transformed into yarn, cloth and clothing.

You can feel what it was like for the pioneering women to make a home in the harsh outback.

The huge old woolshed, and 20 ha (50 acres) of land surrounding it, explodes into life for nine full days in late August with such things as :
Shearing demonstrations and displays, Spinning, Weaving, Wool Crafts and Products, Bullock Teams, Whipmaking, Harness making, leatherwork, Horse teams, Horse-drawn ploughing and  Horse-drawn rides.

Steam Engines, Steam Rollers, Sawmilling, Shingle splitting, Timberworking, Old Tractors, Hot-air engines, Stationary Engines, Vintage Trucks and Cars, Blacksmithing and Sheep Dog Trials are all part of the displays. With Swaggies, Bush characters, Arts, Crafts, displays of old crafts Cheese-making, Beekeeping, Billy Tea and Damper, Entertainment, Bush Poetry, and much more you'll be glad you came.