Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival 2018 Welcome Speech

Friday, March 9, 2018, at a special Launch Event held at the Junee Roundhouse Museum, Nicholas Pyers, President of Junee Rhythm and Rail Festival Inc, gave a Welcome Speech acknowledging the Festival’s Event Partners, Sponsors and Volunteers before introducing the Festival’s Patron, The Hon. Tim Fischer AC, to open the 2018 Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival — which was the Festival’s Tenth Anniversary.

Below is a copy of the Welcome Speech by Nicholas Pyers.

— START —
Good afternoon everyone.

I’m Nicholas Pyers; President of Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival Incorporated. On behalf of our Committee, I’d like to welcome you all to the 2018 Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival — which we are proud to say is our Tenth Anniversary!

Since its’ inauguration in 2008, the small township of Junee transforms during the month of March; into a hive of activity with thousands of visitors flocking to the town, from throughout the Riverina region and beyond, to join in the celebration of Junee’s unique rail heritage and to dance to the rhythm of the tracks.

In 2014, the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival was the winner of the NSW Inland Tourism “Community Festivals and Events” Award.

The Festival has continued to grow, year by year, by creating new and innovative activities that broadens its’ appeal. This year we’ve welcomed the Illabo Motorsports Park as an Event Partner of Junee Rhythm n Rail and I understand this is first time one of the “small villages” that also form part of the Junee Shire, has been specifically involved in a Festival Event.

Another first for the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival is the involvement of our first Event Partner from outside of Junee Shire — the Wagga Wagga Rail Heritage Station Museum.

All up we have over twenty Event Partners, who have all come together to provide an incredible array of events and activities over the three day Festival. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge, in no particular order, each and every one of these organisations:

• Illabo Motorsports Park
• Wagga Wagga Rail Heritage Station Museum
• The Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory
• The Red Cow Hotel
• Pete’s Hobby Railway
• Broadway Museum
• Betty’s on Broadway
• Lachlan Valley Railway
• The Combined Churches of Junee
• The Junee Hotel
• The Railway Station Café
• The Locomotive Hotel
• The Commerical Hotel
• The Junee Ex-Services Memorial Club
• The Junee Youth Council
• Rotary Junee
• The Junee Roundhouse Museum

 

The Festival could not continue to operate without the generous support of our Sponsors.

We are pleased to once again have QUBE Logistics as our Major Sponsor. QUBE has been a committed sponsor of the Festival and their assistance is greatly appreciated.

Likewise, we are grateful for the ongoing support of the Australian Rail Track Corporation as our Volunteer Sponsor. Each year the ARTC supports causes within our local communities, and takes pride in generating employment opportunities in regional areas through their investment in the nation’s rail network.

I would also like to thank our Community Sponsors and Partners, again in no particular order:

• Junee Buses
• Junee Bakery
• Junee Tourist Park
• Hotondo Homes Junee
• Maurice R. Moroney & Co
• Junee Business & Trades
• Transport for NSW
• Riverina Regional Library – Junee Branch
• RE/Max
• So Dance Junee
• The Rail Tram and Bus Union
• The Junee Ex-Services Memorial Club

 

I would also like to thank all of the Friends of the Festival that have all contributed to the success of this year’s Festival.

A very special and personally heartfelt thanks must go to Junee Shire Council!

Without their incredible support the festival would not go ahead. As a person who is relatively new to town and who inherited the Presidency of the Festival only a couple of months ago, the team at Council have provided myself and the Festival with amazing amounts of information and support in the last few weeks to help us bring it all together.

Many individuals have also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the Festival occurs each year and they are far too numerous to list here; and besides many of them are ‘hidden’ assistants — the spouses and partners, the children or even parents, the housemates and friends who are roped in to assist the “primary volunteer” with minor, yet essential, tasks that Committee and myself never hear about.

I would especially like to personally thank the Committee for their support and encouragement, both when I came aboard after the last Festival as “merely” the Festivals Publicity Co-ordinator; and especially since becoming President a couple of months ago.

I must also thank Ron and the team here at the Junee Roundhouse Museum for allowing us to hold our Media launch in such an appropriate location.

We were proud to have the Patron of the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival, The Honourable Tim Fischer, AC present at our launch.

Tim was born at Lockhart on 3 May 1946, and was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne was conscripted into the Australian Army in 1966 and served in The Vietnam War.

He entered Politics in 1971 and became Deputy Prime Minister in 1996, Ambassador to the Holy See in 2008 and is now a successful book author and Chair of the Crop Trust with the Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. His other interests are notably family, farming, charity work, biking and bushwalking in Bhutan & obviously trains.

In recognition of Mr Fischer’s ongoing support of the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival, I’d like him to come forward and I’d like to present him with a commemorative plaque.

[Nicholas presents the plaque to Mr Fischer]

I’ll now hand over to Tim to officially open the Festival.

[Mr Fischer delivers his Opening Speech]
— END —

Official Opening Address

Mr Fischer, as Patron of the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival, officially opened the 2018 Festival with an Opening Address and the Junee Southern Cross recorded a live stream of both Mr Fischer’s and Mr Pyers’ speeches.