The front page on this day in 1978 heralded a "retired public servant who has always liked Queanbeyan" as the winner of the City of Queanbeyan Festival anthem competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While he lived in Watson, Harry Beard was so fond of Q-Town he regularly shopped and dined there and took membership at its licensed clubs. He channeled this affection into 'Anthem of Queanbeyan', which was set to music and peformed at Byrne's Mill Restaurant to mark the festival's end.
Here's a sample. "Queanbeyan, our Queanbeyan, A place of old and new, We give to you in tribute, The pride and praise you're due. Our Queanbeyan is staying young, Each year that she grows older. We live and work in harmony. To make her spirit bolder."
The runner up, Kathy Winter, wrote 'A Queanbeyan Lament', in which she described her home town as "Australia's fairest city". The comic verse mentioned shops shut and too much by way of pokies and beer but was optimistic of a bright future.
"And then it happened, the people rose and cried 'we've had enough!'. They jumped and shouted till they got sophistication and stuff".
"Queanbeyan. my Queanbeyan, a town that's ultra spiffin'. Where things like waste go, democratically down into Lake Burley Grifffin."
