In an unusal move for 'not-much-of-a-joiner' me, I picked out one of the official Australia Day activities to go to today. The Cotter Bush Picnic was a chance to lie back in the shade and look at the trees, while listening to the music.
Country/rockabilly band the Fuelers claim to have Australia's only 'beer cactus' (it's on the stage).
They had a more decent audience than that photo suggests, but only the little kids ventured out of the shade at the back. At one point the band tried to lure adults up to dance by giving exaggerated warning that they were going to throw handsful of lollies to the children, and if you didn't want a sugared-up hyperactive child you should get up NOW! It didn't work in the slightest. The kids enjoyed the lollies.
We also checked out some old-timey dancing, complete with old timey bush band.
Perhaps the most unexpected element of the bush picnic was the screening of a short documentary film about Confest, a conference / festival of the couterculture and alternative lifestyles held at Cotter in 1976. They had to post warnings that those under fifteen should be accompanied by an adult, cause there was a bit of nudey-rudeynes which might corrupt young people. Personally I think that viewing some real-shaped naked bodies can ony do good when we're awash in a media sea of barely clad Pamela Anderson-Jordan-barbie styled figures wherever you turn. The lovely lady from Environment ACT who was manning the entrance to the tent said she was surprised to find that quite a few of her colleages admitted to having been there, and indeed bounced around sans clothing too. I was only surprised that she was surprised.
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