Brigaddon in Australia

[Douggie M]

I'm finally getting around to posting the only photo I got at Brigadoon.
This is my Daughter Katherine and I getting soaked in the rain but still having a fantastic day.

Douggie.


P.S. its difficult to see but if anyone can identify the tartan in my daughters skirt I would appreciate it. My wife made her skirt from one of her winter school uniforms.

[Downunder Kilt]

Good one Douggie. I was also there and met up with Grizzled Ian and the lovely Grizz, unfortunately my pics with them did not turn out but, I did get some of the massed bands. 20 Bands were there on the day, not a bad turnout




And yes it was a tad wet, my shoes at the end of the day

[Douggie M]

Hi Downunder Kilt,
They are great shots of the bands.
One lucky thing with my shoes, they were brown to start with. (But they took about three days to dry out.)
Douggie

[OC Richard]

Thanks for posting those! I love being able to vicariously attend Games that I'll never see in person. Especially nice to see an Australian Games! Seems that most of the photos that get posted here are of American, Scottish, or English events.

Having spent most of my 50-odd years in pipe bands, I love seeing the bands from different places. This photo is very interesting



because one can see bands dressed in typical modern competition dress, with waistcoats (the band in Wallace kilts) but also a band in Full Dress (which one never sees at a competition here, the band in Gordon kilts) and a Police Band wearing the distinctive Police Dice Glengarries.

Thanks! Richard

PS is Brigadoon a place in Australia? Here it's a Broadway Musical from the 1940s.

[Grizzled Ian]

The event is held in the town of Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, on the first or second Saturday in April. Actually a Highland Gathering rather than a Games, it does include strength events (caber, weight over bar and weight for distance), but the real crowd pleaser is the Bundanoon Stones of Manhood. One of the five competitors lifted all five stones of the set used this year, 100kg, 115, 125, 140 and 165kg, a good effort on a damp pitch and with slippery rocks. Chieftain of the Day was Valerie Cairney C y C from Florida. She is the founder, editor and publisher of the Scottish Banner newspaper.

OCRichard, the band nearest camera is indeed the NSW Police Pipe Band, in Ancient MacKay kilts (and short sleeves, so they got wet during Massed Bands). Two bands were in Wallace, the (Sydney) Northern Suburbs Pipe Band, and the Illawarra Pipe Band, from the Wollongong area on the coast a couple of hours south of Sydney. The band sporting feather bonnets and red and white hackles may have been the Castle Hill RSL* or the Hills District pipe bands, both from the reasonably affluent north-western urban fringe of Sydney. Further away from camera, the feathers and white hackles are the Parramatta RSL* Caledonian Pipe Band, in their Campbell of Louden kilts and red - no, scarlet! - doublets. Of the 20 bands listed in the program, 18 are from NSW, and two from Canberra - and all based within 3 hours of Bundanoon. Ah but, oh the massed pipes and drums! Roughly 400 strong, advancing over the oval out of the gathering gloom of a late afternoon mist! Makes you glad you're not English! (pace English Bloke, Anne the Pleater, and our other mates south of the wall.)

Mike, it was good to meet up with you at the Gathering. What a grand day, despite (or because of) the inclement weather, although I'm glad there was little wind. I trust you had a smooth passage back home. Last year I met fellow-XMTS John McQuillen, and bumped into him a couple of times this year. That's a shame about your shots not working. I hope Grizz or our friends may have taken photos as well as you that we can post on the forum. Our after-dinner entertainment included large helpings of Chris Duncan, world-renowned fiddle player, and Catherine Strutt on piano, a formidable Scottish music duo. They live in Newcastle, up my way, and play at local SCD balls, and have released two albums that are well worth a listen.

Douggie, I hope your daughter enjoyed the outing. Sorry, I can't help identify her tartan. We'll meet up on another ocassion.

*RSL is the Returned and Services League of Australia. It provides support for current and former servicemen and women.

[Liam]

And yes it was a tad wet, my shoes at the end of the day

One of the few times where "ghillators" might have been a good choice - or wellies!

[Blupiper]

One of the few times where "ghillators" might have been a good choice - or wellies!

If you can find wellies with the proper broguing.

JMB

[Liam]

If you can find wellies with the proper broguing.

JMB

How about these?

[OC Richard]

Wow those wellies are amazing!

Of course nobody around here would know what 'wellies' means... they don't have them here (I wear flip flops 365 days a year, as do my kids).

Thanks for the info!

[Calgacus]

How about these?

Lol, too funny!!

Not sure about the 'white hose' colour scheme though...