Loch's beacon starts Queen's celebrations

THE South Gippsland township of Loch joined communities all around the Commonwealth on Thursday, June 2, in lighting up their version of the Queen’s Beacon at the start of four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Australia.

It might only have been a portable spotlight on the end of an electric generator in Sunnyside Park but it was an official event, one of hundreds of such occasions to mark the 70th year of the Queen’s reign.

A member of the Loch Community Development Association, Howard Booth, said Queen Elizabeth II was much loved and respected in Australia, since the time in 1954 when an estimated 75 per cent of the population turned out to see her on her first tour.

“I’ve seen the Queen on two occasions in Australia, once when she opened the Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and another time when she opened the Immigration Museum, formerly the Customs House in Flinders Street,” Mr Booth said.

“From her war service to the number of times she’s visited Australia to open facilities and events, and the times she’s hosted Australians in England, she’s done a lot for this country and I think the vast majority of people in Australia respect her for what she’s done.

“We thought we should do something, with the lighting of the beacon the first and then there’s the ecumenical service on Sunday, from 11am, followed by a community lunch and a pudding competition in the hall.”

The night air was cold out in the park as Ian Osborne and Robert Clarke, both members of the LCDA, fired up the beacon, supported by an appreciative group of community members, inside the rotunda, around the town’s barbecues where the ubiquitous sausage sizzle was on the go.

Afterwards a glass of wine, a beer or two and a sausage in bread warmed the heart and the soul and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were underway. Well done Loch!