Palmwoods Piccabeen Celebration

Event date: 15 Mar 2010 - 4 Jul 2010

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Piccabeen Palms do not like to be alone; they grow in groves and need the protection of many of their kind around them. They are not a solo species but are a team player, just like us!

Palmwoods is going to celebrate the namesake of our town with a family parade and picnic in Federation Park. There will be workshops to prepare parade banners and palm lanterns, and a feature performance in the park.

Togetherness and teamwork will be a central tenet of the art work by Kari and Linley in this project and will stimulate community celebration in a culminating event - Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic - that will bring the local community out to celebrate the town’s identity with a community performance and exhibition.

This project will also draw attention to the environment in our local area, Kolora Park ( Palmwoods), through a local school focused environmental walks guided by local artistic and environmental groups leading to a variety of fun artistic and scientific activities.

Download the Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic Program

as a pdf, found at the end of this text

Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic

~ a celebration of, our community, our town & our place ~

March 15th - 27th ~ Piccabeen activity weeks

Kolora Magic Textile Exhibition: Opening Mon 15th March, running to Sun 21st March, Old Bakery Shop opposite IGA, details 5445 0649

Piccabeen Grove Planting : Sun March 21st, Federation Park, details Heritage Branch
Piccabeen Crown Workshop: Monday 22nd March, Palmwoods Memorial Hall, 3.30-5.30pm, free but bookings necessary, 5445 0622

Piccabeen Parade Lanterns Workshop: Sat March 27th, Palmwoods Memorial Hall, 9am - 12 noon, free but bookings necessary, 5445 0622

Piccabeen Windows: Watch the shop windows in the town, prize awarded at the picnic

Piccabeen Prince & Princess: Create your piccabeen crown, participate in the parade and you could be selected Prince or Princess

3 Prizes for: Best presented Individual, Family & Business Group in Parade

Sunday March 28th ~ a family parade & picnic in the park

Parade Begins 4pm, Palmwoods Memorial Hall, details 5445 0622
Parade finishes Federation Park,
Piccabeen Picnic: BYO family picnic to eat in the park together, piccabeen activites, crowning of the Piccabeen Prince and Princess, prizes, displays, TreeLine Piccabeen Performance.

Media Releases

Watch This Place! #11 - Piccabeen Picnic this Sunday

This is what I’m doing this Sunday. First up I’ll check the website to see if the rain has dampened any plans. Oh, looks like it’s all going ahead. BUT I'll bring my sunhat AND gumboots just in case. I’ll pack a picnic tea for the family. At 3pm I’ll drive to Federation Park, on Lingard Street behind Turners transport. I’ll drop off my picnic and chairs. There’ll be plenty of committee people there to look after my things.

Then I’ll drive back to Palmwoods with the family, and park near the pub.

We’ll be at the Hall at 3.30 pm in our Piccabeen costumes and crowns. Can’t wait to see everyone in the parade. Bet I’ll meet someone I know, AND someone I don’t know yet. Jenny Mackay is coming on the parade.

I’m looking forward to a slow walk to the park, with lots of chat and seeing what’s on display at the park. AND I believe there’s some wild Piccabeen games planned. The kids will like that. Thought we might share a drink with our neighbours there.

I hope we stand a chance of winning the best-dressed family. Wonder who’ll get Piccabeen Princess or Prince? Wonder how many businesses will have a go at best dressed business?

Hmm I wonder what they’ve got planned for the performance?

I hear the Palmwoods Hotel has kindly offered to ferry people back to Palmwoods in the mini buses after the finale. Good idea.

Anyway it’s different and should be fun. I’ll be there. Will you?

Visit www.palmwoods.asn.au to download the updated program of events or wet weather plans.

Watch This Place! #7 Calling Local Business

Can you Piccabeen your business? Bet you can.

If your business has a shop front, then you can decorate your shop front windows with a Piccabeen theme. There will be a prize for the best-dressed window in Palmwoods during Piccabeen Week March 21st - 28th.

Make a splash in the Piccabeen Parade. There will be a prize for the best-presented business group in the Parade Sunday March 28th 3.30 pm.

Participate in the Corporate Volunteer Piccabeen Palm Planting in Federation Park on Sunday March 21st.

Watch This Place! #5 A new Piccabeen Grove

My first memory of Palmwoods is the Park Kolora Duck Pond. This was all I could recall when it was suggested I move here 17 years ago. It was the palms I remembered; the cool invitingness of the grove of palms, next to the pond. This is a small remnant of the massive palm forests that would have graced the local waterways. Unfortunately this remnant grove comes under the proposed railway footprint!

Piccabeen Palms don’t like to be alone. They grow in groves. They need the protection of many of their kind around them, and slightly wet feet! Thus a Piccabeen initiative has been hatched.

Palmwoods Heritage Community Branch appreciates the heritage value of these plants to our town. Our local branch is sponsoring a planting of a new Piccabeen Grove in Federation Park, away from the roads and train lines.

Walk through the wetland in the park, and watch out for the newest Palm grove to be established there. There will be a palm planting on Sunday March 21st. Do you want to contribute? Talk to Todd at the Palmwoods Branch.

Watch This Place! #4 Piccabeen Creative Dance?

Piccabeen Palms don’t like to be alone. They grow in groves. They need the protection of many of their kind around them. They are not a solo species. They are a team player! They dance together! You too can dance with them!

Local artists, Linley and Kari, are working together on an artistic feature for the Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic, combining ceramic sculpture, dance and film projections. It is a unique opportunity for young people to be a part of a creative dance depicting the Piccabeens.

Imagine projection depicting Palm Groves, sculpture responding to Piccabeen, and dancers responding to sculpture in a work, which interweaves the different mediums. Togetherness and Teamwork will be a central tenet of the work.

Interested young dancers can contact Linley Boyle’s Bodysong creative dance classes on 5445 0417.

Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic Sunday March 28th.

There will be many more opportunities to be involved, so… Watch this Place!

Watch This Place! #3 What’s in a name?

We know it as the Piccabeen Palm. In NSW they are known as Bangalow Palms, and Toowoomba uses it for a native flora emblem. But the term Piccabeen comes from Pikki, a traditional water carrier made from the palm fronds. There is a grove of Piccabeens at the Kolora Duckpond. This grove of trees was the main reason for the name of our town.

Palmwoods will feature in a shire wide project – TreeLine, which features significant trees in our district. TreeLine will be launched at the Bunya Dreaming Festival at Baroon Pocket Dam Saturday 30th January. Shuck a bunya, chuck a bunya, cook a bunya; all fun activities hosted by Barung Landcare and local indigenous families.

Mark Sunday March 28th in your diaries for the TreeLine spotlight on Palmwoods. For details on how to get involved in our Palmwoods Piccabeen Celebration phone Kari on 5445 0622.

Watch This Place! #2 The Palmwoods Piccabeen

So.. What do Palmwoods, a small town in NSW and Toowoomba have in common? You guessed, it’s our very own Piccabeen Palm? The local indigenous people made things from Piccabeens, decorated shields with it, and we are going to celebrate it and our town at the end of March thanks to a grant from the council’s Regional Arts Development Fund.

A week of workshops and activities are being planned, culminating in a community event. Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic on Palm Sunday afternoon, March 28th.

A partnership has been formed between Palmwoods Progress Association, Heritage Palmwoods Community Branch and the Palmwoods Art & Craft Group, to make the event a reality. Palmwoods School is on board and Florabunda Bushcare.

The Piccabeen Picnic will celebrate our community, our place, the heritage trees in Kolora Park AND the Piccabeen Palm. Over the next few months we will be bringing you all sorts of interesting details and tree facts to satisfy your interest in your "Place" and your environment.

Watch This Place! #1 Can you guess?

It can be tall, can be small, always in groups and never alone.

Never shy to shed its clothes, yet always demure & never exposed.

Google it, grow it, doodle it, sew it, but first ask yourself …

What do Palmwoods, Toowoomba and a small town in NSW have in common?

Can you guess? Answer in next weeks “Watch This Place”

A few months ago a council initiative called TreeLine invited artists and communities to create artworks and activities that celebrate significant Sunshine Coast trees. TreeLine is a program of events about people, art, science and nature, running from January to July 2010, and featuring Palmwoods from March 21st – 28th 2010.

Mark your new diaries. AND … Watch this space!

PDF Downloads

Program Palmwoods Piccabeen Picnic.pdf

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