Page 7 - Demo

A Visit to a
Very Large Island
Australia—10,900 miles from England, 9,000 from USA, and 4,000 miles from China—is the largest island on the globe with a popula- tion of a mere twenty-two and a half million, less than many cities in the Far East. “Why go all that way, amazingly, to attend a bonsai con- vention and visit long-term friends?” asks Kath Hughes, recalling
BCI’s 2014 convention. “For those uninitiated, who have flown to Australia from Europe or North America for the first time, arriving in this southern continent can be somewhat disconcerting. To begin with, the Europeans land having flown virtually non-stop for some 24 hours. To those from North America, flying over the international dateline results in those losing a day. Now to some, this could be deemed exceedingly irritating—I mean, somewhere in your life, 24 hours has been mislaid; there again, the reassuring aspect of this is when flying back, you somehow manage to arrive in California before you leave Brisbane or Sydney—an even neater trick!!
Australia, particularly Queensland, proves different in many ways. The sea- sons are back to front—mild mid-winters in June, the hottest temperatures at Christmas—just imagine Christmas trees plus a barbecue on the beach. Also, the vast percentage of animals and plants on that continent, exist nowhere else in the world, with one particular creature that does not run or canter, but bounces around from one place to another—it obviously never read the instruction man- ual. The people prove to be among the friendliest and most outgoing people you could ever wish to meet.”
Back in 2010, at the BCI annual convention in Guangzhou, China, the Aus- tralian Association of Bonsai Clubs (AABC) won the bid to host the BCI 2014 annual convention. A small group of volunteers was set up as the Planning Com- mittee under Convention Manager Lindsay Bebb, to work on a plan that would welcome the international bonsai community and showcase Australian bonsai and viewing stones.
The display committee, led by Carole Waller, set out to design and make indi- vidual display alcoves and plinths for the bonsai display. Peter Woosley joined the team and took on the task of building them. Trevor Simmons was responsible for construction and setup of the stone display. More people were recruited for the Selection Panels to choose the Bonsai and Stones for the respective exhibitions.
BCI director Kath Hughes and husband Malcolm got there early to help their long-time friends, “Our arrival in Brisbane on the Monday preceding the event was the start of an amazing visit. On arriving at the home of Lindsay and Glenis Bebb, we discovered just how much work and organization goes into staging an event of this kind. Within hours, or dare I say minutes of arriving at their spacious home, we found almost every spare inch filled with stuff for the Convention. Boxes and boxes of paperwork, stones, books together with bonsai and every conceivable piece of equipment needed for this three-day event. We were quickly put to work putting name cards into badge holders for the 400 plus registrants attending from sixteen countries. The phones rang continuously, deliveries of various kinds kept arriving and the work never stopped until well into the evening.”
The next day, more of the same starting at exceptionally early hours of the morning; tasks included Lindsay and Malcolm carrying out the final preparation of the bonsai to be exhibited and pots being cleaned.
Top to bottom; Friday morning, participants were welcomed by AABC President Lindsay Bebb who stated, “... this is the largest convention ever conducted in Australia and the largest BCI Con- vention in recent times with 402 people registering for conven- tion activities from 16 different countries.”
The Official Opening was performed by BCI President Dr. Tom Elias.
Many bonsai-related items were available from vendors.
O
|
Oc
ct
t
o
o
b
b
e
er
r/
/N
N
o
o
v
ve
em
mb
be
er
r/
/
D
De
e
c
ce
e
m
mb
be
e
r
r
2
20
0
1
1
4|
5
4
B
|
I|
B
C
C
I
5