af 1991

This year the festival under the chairmanship of Peter Hearman took a completely new direction. The theme of this year's festival was to be an 'Italian Affair' to acknowledge the contribution made to the horticultural industry and to the district generally by our Italian community. The committee wanted to acknowledge the part they had played in the area since World War 2. It had never been formally recognised and they thought this would be a good way to do so. A special logo was designed to promote the "Italian Affair" and was used widely to publicise the festival. Helping Peter turn this idea into reality was a diverse committee. The Masonic Lodge joined with Apex, Rotary and Lions to co-ordinate the festival. Mrs. Peta Allan was Secretary/Treasurer and Marilyn Hickman oversaw the District Display with Penny Hearman looking after the Queen Committee. Steve Trigwell and Tom Sheehan Jnr represented the Fruitgrowers Association and Mick Aitken represented the Shire. The Masonic Lodge took on the huge job of manning the gate over the two days. Staging an 'Italian Affair' without the help of the South West Italian Club would not have been possible and their secretary, Enzo Fantasia, organized the food pavilion and arranged the participation of the Italian Club Traditional Dancers and the Cultural Choir. The Italian community helped put together a marvellous display of photographs of the old Italian families and their past involvement in the area. Another other new development this year was the shifting of the Apple Festival Ball from the traditional venue of the Memorial Hall to what had been Burridge and Warren ' s packing shed. They had recently sold the shed to Wescorp who were using it to load trucks so the whole floor space could be made available to stage the 'Giant Apple Shed Ball' .This area would be many times the size of the Memorial Hall and would enable all the tables and chairs to be arranged round the dance floor. It would also leave room to put the aluminium grand stands, hired for use at Egan Park, at one end to allow spectators who did not want to attend the ball to watch the crowning ceremony. The number of queen contestants was down this year with only seven girls taking part.

CONTESTANT SPONSOR; Camille Lathwell Rural Youth, Rachel Castledine Argyle Bush Fire Brigade, Sarina Russo Fruitgrowers Association, Denise Kirkpatrick Rotary Club, Kate Wherrett Lions Club, Joanne Vinci Donnybrook Recreation Centre, Sandra Machin Donnybrook Pony Club. (Courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals")

Photo courtesy of Lloyd Robinson	Apple Queen Entrants (back L-R) Kate Wherrett, Camille Lathwell; (front) Sarina Russo, Joanne Vinci, Denise Kirkpatrick, Rachel Castledine & Sandra Minchin. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Apple Princess Rachel Castledine, Apple Queen Joanne Vinci & Miss Personality Camille Lathwell. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"
Kate Wherrett on Lion's Club winning float. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Italian pioneers were acknowledged at the "Italian Affair" Festival. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Local packing shed decorated by the Rotary Club for the Festival Ball Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"
Photo courtesy of Lloyd Robinson	Photo courtesy of Lloyd Robinson

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 1991

The next Donnybrook Apple Festival is in Easter 2010