Theodore River Festival - 2021

The Wulli Wulli people are the traditional custodians of Theodore and the surrounding areas and over the weekend Theodore’s Centenary Celebrations kicked off at the annual River Festival.

The festival had an Indigenous focus this year which was in honour of the First Nations Australians, and Wulli Wulli decedent Danielle Beezly said, “It gave people from the Aboriginal community and the non-Aboriginal community a chance to come together to learn, interact and have fun”.

This year to celebrate Theodore’s first centenary the Theodore Chamber of Commerce held the River Festival in conjunction with the Hooked on Theodore fishing competition. The Theodore Community Link (TCL) hosted Eat Street and the Fun Run, which saw people of all ages running and walking the 5km track.

The annual Art Show ran again in conjunction with the festival and held its opening at the RSL on Friday night. There was an Indigenous artefacts display at the Museum and Hotel Theodore hosted an exhibition of local artist’s current work which was themed, “Curves in Nature”.

Locals and visitors alike, were given the opportunity to learn about Aboriginal culture and chat to Elders about the local history. The opening ceremony drew a great crowd and there were plenty of activities for the kids and market stalls for the adults.

Dawson River Cruises captain, Keith Shoecraft, was happy to take passengers on a leisurely cruise up and down the Dawson River and share his knowledge of the local area with those who wanted to listen.

Congratulations to all the volunteers and organisers of the 2021 River Festival. It was an extremely easy event to cover when everyone was having such a fabulous time. Everywhere you looked there were smiling faces, kids running around laughing, old friends catching up (reminiscing about their times shared while growing up in Theodore) and visitors commenting on what a great little community we have here in Central Queensland.

On a personal note, I would like to thank those who assisted in looking after my two little cherubs on Saturday afternoon, especially those ladies at TECCA who provided endless hours of activities and entertainment (and supervision). I could not have captured the images that I did without all of your help! Thank you.

Another appreciation plug goes out to local fisherman, Stuart Olsson, who took me out on his boat so that I could capture a few images of people competing in the annual fishing comp, Hooked on Theodore. I couldn’t capture images of the River Festival without getting out on the river now could I……..