The Garden Spectacular
Christmas Light Display is held on the James Lynne Estate in Havannah
Street, Bathurst. It all
began in 1990 with the oldest great grand-daughter of the late James Lynne
deciding to hang one string of Christmas fairy lights up on the lower
branches of a large privet tree. The lights were so delightful, the following year more lights were purchased to hang in the apply tree opposite the privet tree. The lights graduated to the plum tree, then the other apple tree near the gate.
In 1993 one of the
large department stores in Bathurst had a sale of their Christmas garlands
and wreathes as they were changing their colour scheme.
One of our friends tied the rope around his waist and onto the
front mudguard of the car. When
he finished getting up as high as he could go, the car was put in reverse
and the wreath was pulled up into its final destination. For the lower
decorations, a grandson and his friend climbed the trees to hang the
wreaths and throw lights out onto branches. We were so happy with this
as it was increasing the beauty of the garden for Christmas, the following
year we hired a cherry picker to hang them up high in the pine trees. People were stopping to
look at the lights and hanging over the fence to have a look at the
lights. It was the only one
of its kind in Bathurst. Then one evening one of the sightseers edged
their way in through the gate to have a look and was advised it was a
private garden and could not come in.
They apologized and said that he had brought the grandchildren down
especially to see the lights as they had traveled from ACT.
As we didn’t wish to disappoint them, we showed them around the
garden. They loved the garden
and said it was beautiful, however no toilets were available……. We started all thinking
that maybe we could put something around the garden, good enough for the
people to come in and look at. We
needed to cater for the guests also, however, there was a toilet which had
not been used for over 20 years already available, but needed some
attention, this would be necessary. Meetings were held to see
what ideas we could come up with. St
Vincent's De Paul attended and assisted with climbing the trees to put the
decorations up. A young carpenter offered his time to put some displays
together. Not knowing how
everything would proceed as this was the first time to put something like
this together, people put in time freely. The Mayor of the day opened
the first public viewing in 1994 and was so impressed with the work
achieved. A coloring competition for the students was also held and the Mayor handed out prizes
to the winners. The following year the same
Mayor held meetings with other community works and had electrical work
installed free of charge by Uncle Bens of Australia, carried out by John
Martin. This made things much easier to decorate with lights. The following year
Bethlehem was built by Graham Burgess.
This has been a high light for different features each year. Pavers were laid by David
Naylor to assist walking around the garden, to assist people when walking
around looking at the displays, instead of walking in mud as previously
happened when it rained. A structure was then put in
place by taxi driver Cess Williams for the 12 Days of Christmas.
He then went to put a small structure up for other interchangeable
scenes each Christmas. The men from Kirconnell
prison farm made a Santa Sleigh and Reindeers for the children to sit on
with Santa. Many schools came
that year and had their photos taken by the local media.
Films have been shown in this area for the children to look at
since then.
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