Beyond The Crown

14/06/2023

We are gearing up to bring you more episodes about harvest festival queens of Stanthorpe.
Come and talk to Lou at the Snowflakes in Stanthorpe Festival at the local authors stall about what we have coming up.

03/05/2022

I'm wrapping up admin for The Regional Arts Development Fund and want to make one last acknowledgement of the funding received to do this podcast.
I am incredibly grateful to have received a RADF grant to make this podcast happen.
I met wonderful women and hearing their stories only increased my pride in the Granite Belt and the amazing things that locals are doing on the land and for our region.
Stay turned for more news. As I type this, I am a writer-in-residence at the State Library of Queensland with Queensland Writers Centre. Research for a fiction novel about a harvest festival queen turned into a podcast and now, that research again is turning into a novel that I'll be submitting to agents and publishers for their consideration. Fingers crossed you'll see my story in a bookstore near you.
And, there is chatter about a non-fiction book as a way to collate these stories, and keep interviewing the former queens. More to come on that.
In short, I will continue to collect stories of the Granite Belt's harvest festival queens and will share these in the future.

24/02/2022

We have a bumper crop of episodes coming your way tomorrow. AND Lou will be live on Facebook on Sunday with book giveaways, digitised film of the 1960, 1972 and 1980 festivals and the premiere of The Apple Song, by Ward Leopold.

Check out this photo from the Queensland State Archives collection of a promotional truck for the festival at the Sunshine Motorway opening.

19/02/2022

You can catch Annette O’Reilly in Muriel’s Wedding and the Broadbeach bridal shop where they filmed.

I know Annette is on the DVD but will you spot her on the Netflix version streaming now?

15/02/2022

Watch Sunrise at 8:15am Qld time to see the Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival at Raddacliff Place/Brisbane Square Markets 🍎🍇🍏🎉

10/02/2022

We are now *live* with our episode “A brief history of apples in Australia: part 1”. 📲💻🎧

Now that episode title is completely tongue in cheek 😆 Find out why it’s been so hard to find information about the Apple Blossom Festival and Apple and Grape Harvest Festival, and the importance of private photo and film collections. 📸📽

Pull on your 🧤 and step in the Queensland State Archives with me and reference archivist Julanne Neal for a tour of the ‘reps’ and a deep dive into their apple growing records:
🍎👑🍏📁📰🗂📚🗃🗄🔖

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/3e52a738-c89e-429a-8fe8-b561739891b3

08/02/2022

Getting excited: our "Brief History of Apple Festivals in Australia: Part 1" is launching this week and features Julanne Neal, reference archivist at Queensland State Archives.

I'm taking four very special photos found in the 'reps' (that's archivist talk for repositories!) at the Archives to south of Tenterfield this week to show the 1972 Centenary Harvest Festival Queen, Carol Skuse.

Why are these photos special? Stay tuned, folks. All will be revealed soon!

Photo: Julanne got on the gloves to handle photographs of apple orchards in the QSA collection.

04/02/2022

Listen at lunch time: We interrupt your time travel with our Apple Blossom Queens to bring you the 2022 Young Ambassadors for the Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival. 🍏🍇🍎❤

Go 'beyond the sash' and hear their stories about why they decided to be a part of the festival.

We will catch up with the YAs as they fundraise and promote the region. Stay tuned for the follow up ep in a couple of weeks!
Tagging them in:
Karma O'Reilly
Jordan Cassidy
Ben Green
Laura Robertson
Rachelle Td
Stanthorpe Mechanical and Wrecking Young Ambassador - Makayla Doughty
Granite Belt Cleaning & Hospitality Supplies Young Ambassador - Amy Colyer
Rotary Stanthorpe Young Ambassador - Karma O'Reilly
Ballandean Community Young Ambassador - Laura Robertson
Cav Insure Young Ambassador - Jasmin Ball-Mandavy
Granite Belt Growers Association Young Ambassador - Jordan Cassidy
Samantha Wantling

Please feel welcome to tag in anyone who is missing.

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30/01/2022

Countdown begins! 🍎👑🍏🎉

27/01/2022

1965! Annette Barker, now Annette O’Reilly, found herself a Queen without a festival. 🍎🍏👑
Meet the last Apple Blossom Queen in episode four:

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20/01/2022

And we are live for Episode Three: the Drag Queens of Ballandean.

Find out why the Ballandean Youth Club protested against the Apple Blossom Festival in 1962 👑🍑

Quickly and easily listen to Beyond The Crown for free!

19/01/2022

You never know what photos you’ll find on the wall of a small country community hall 📸

In the next episode, we visit 1962 to find our why the Allan, Peter and Sam of the Ballandean Youth Club dressed up in their sisters’ clothes to stage a protest against the Apple Blossom Festival 🍎❤️🍏

Meet the Drag Queens of Ballandean ✊👑🍑🍅