af 1959

Determined to equal or surpass the Bridgetown Festival, Manjimup set up a committee under the chairmanship of A. Lloyd with Fred Wiseman Secretary-Organizer. Many thousands of people passed under the giant apple festooned timber arch on the Southwest Highway to enter Manjimup on the Easter weekend. Good Friday was taken up with district tours featuring Fonty's Pool, One Tree Bridge and the Three Aces amongst other attractions. In the evening the religious film "King of Kings" was shown in the Town 11 Hall. Saturday morning saw the early arrival of the Reso train and the program started with the Apple Box Derby that was won by l3-year-old John Holtom in his homemade cart, the Apple Tart. The fruit handling competitions were held in Wesfarmers packing shed and saw Margaret Licciardello win the apple packing for the third time in succession with the time of two minutes, one and a half seconds. Geoff Stewart won the case making completing six boxes in 6min 45sec.

Entertainment on the Recreation Ground started after lunch in front of an estimated crowd of 2,000 people with model airplane flying displays and log chops that ran all afternoon. The Western Command Band, the Caledonian Pipe Band and the Manjimup R.S.L. Band led a youth parade including members of the Boys and Girls Brigade, marching girls and other youth groups onto the ground before Agricultural Minister L. Kelly opened the Festival. He stated that the apple industry had started off with some very bad publicity as the source of all the world's evils in the Garden of Eden. It was a tribute to generations of apple growers that today the apple was accepted as a symbol of excellence. He congratulated Manjimup for this year having a record number of Queen contestants with eleven girls competing for the honour. The prize of a trip to Singapore would have a very good effect on trade with that important country. (Courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals")

Donnybrook's float with (L-R) Dawn Starkey, Donnybrook Queen Glenys Mitchell & Beryl Jackson. Photo curtsey of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Festival Queen Maureen Rooke, Bridgetown Photo curtsey of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"

Shirley Wiseman, Manjimup Photo curtsey of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"

We invite people to provide us with photos of previous apple festival queens and floats. Anyone who has photos can drop them into "Crendon Machinery", all photos will be returned.

The Donnybrook Apple Festival 1959

The next Donnybrook Apple Festival is in Easter 2010