T&Csouth

www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au66 QUEENSLAND COUNTRY LIFE 11 July 2013

By SALLY NICOL RIGNEY

TICKETS are now on sale for the celebrated Weengallon Pink Ladies Day. It is the

heart-warming annual breast cancer fundraiser that has caught the imagination of the nation by providing a dazzling day of shopping, lunch and laughter in the middle of nowhere.

Weengallon is a tiny blink-and-miss-it town with a population of zero, between Goondiwindi and St George on the Barwon Highway. However, once a year the district’s proactive women use ingenuity and elbow grease to create something just a little bit extraordinary.

This year on Wednesday August 21, 500 festive pink-clad women will flock to Weengallon to be greeted with a Bentleys Berry Passion cocktail and start shopping at 25 sumptuous stores.

The ladies are then seated in

the elegant Toowoomba Party Hire marquee which is being decorated in this year’s ‘Berry Pink’ theme by the St Hilda’s School on the Gold Coast.

Weengallon Berry Pink Ladies Day Co-ordinator, Kellie Mitchell, says every year the guests embrace the theme and dress-to-the-nines as they compete for the coveted Aitches Boutique best dressed prize. “Everything and everyone on the day is a visual and heart-lifting delight.”

It’s against this backdrop that NAB have brought in outback landscape artist, Annabel Tully, to share her story of being diagnosed twice with breast cancer amidst drought, depression and five babies.

Kellie says it will be compelling. “Annabel speaks from the heart and I know she will touch us all with her strength, warmth and humour.”

The day continues with a gourmet smorgasbord lunch featuring local produce from Goondiwindi’s Gooralie Free-Range Pork and

delectable desserts from O’Brien Toyota, St George. The excitement builds as a marathon of raffles are awarded, including the holiday at the South Pacific Resort and Spa Noosa, and culminates in a burst of joyful bidding in the Rabobank Decorative Bra Art Auction.

The day raises around $30,000

which is directed towards supporting the position of a local breast care nurse, breast cancer research and the Olive McMahon Lodge in Toowoomba.

Kellie Mitchell says it’s amazing to think the day is the result of a kindergarten fundraiser that got out of control. “We all have our hearts

invested in Weengallon Pink Ladies Day. We feel proud and humbled to be creating something so good for such a good cause.”

Tickets are $40 and numbers are limited to 500. ❖ www.pinkladiesday.com.

Weengallonpretty in berry pink

Weengallon’s Pink Ladies prepare the invitations for their glamorous ladies lunch on Wednesday August 21. (L-R) Jocelyn Freeman, Virginia Phillips, Amelia Sevil, Kellie Mitchell, Kelli Morse, Georgina Donelan, Sharlee Webster and Emma Montgomery.

EXQUISITE music will once again chime across the Darling Downs as Queensland Music

Festival’s popular Opera at Jimbour concert returns.

Beginning at 2pm on Saturday July 20, at the Jimbour Station Amphitheatre, this now iconic outdoor performance will celebrate the bicentenary of Italian romantic composer, Guiseppe Verdi, with an excellent afternoon of classic opera and musical indulgence.

QMF Artistic Director James Morrison promised the free event would be bigger and better than ever before.

”This is set to be a stunning spectacle of sights and sounds that will amaze not only opera aficionados, but also opera first-timers,” he said.

”What better opportunity to enjoy the beautiful winter sunshine, with good food, great wine and incredible song!

”This year, QMF joins forces with

Opera Queensland’s four soloists Leanne Kenneally, James Egglestone, Guy Booth and David Hibbard, the Opera Queensland Chorus, and the Camerata of St John’s, to perform well known Verdi choruses and arias from much loved works such as Il trovatore, La traviata and Rigoletto.

Celebrated Australian conductor Guy Noble will lead the orchestra in

what is set to be a performance of aural and visceral beauty.

Patrons are invited to bring their own blankets, chairs and picnics to the grounds and to enjoy the whole day at Jimbour, with local market stalls open from 10am and opera kicking off at 2pm.

A variety of food and wine will be available for purchase during the festival, and picnic hampers are available to be pre-ordered from Etiquette 247 via the QMF website.

Opera at Jimbour is a signature event of the state-wide Queensland Music Festival 2013, which will take place from the July 12- 28. Opera at Jimbour is presented by Queensland Music Festival, Western Downs Regional Council, Opera Queensland, and Jimbour Station, with the generous support of ERM Power, Seven Network and ABC Southern Queensland.❖ For more information call (07) 3010 6600, or visit qmf.org.au.

The free event, Opera at Jimbour, attracts massive crowds each year.

Opera encore at Jimbour

‘ ‘This is set to be a stunning spectacle

of sights and sounds that will amaze not only

opera afi cionados, but also opera fi rst-timers.