Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate the people of Yackandandah on winning a place in the Guinness book of records. On Saturday 7 December 2013 the beautiful township of Yackandandah entered the world stage when they broke the record for the longest bunting line, with a whopping 7.7823 kilometres of bunting—more than three kilometres longer than the previous record. It has been a wonderful community effort for the town of 950 people, who, since June, have gathered together their friends and family to begin cutting, sewing and hanging. I would like to congratulate the Yackandandah Primary School, Yackandandah Community Education Network, Yackandandah Garden Club, and Yackandandah high street businesses, as well as Beechworth High School, Osborne Flat Primary School, Appin Park Primary School and the friends of Cafe Derailleur in Wangaratta. Congratulations to the visionary community leaders, including Lauren Salathiel, Judy Davies, Denis Ginnivan and Kevin Poyner, among others, and to the judges who did the verifying of the results. The last record holder for bunting hanging was the town of Torpoint in the UK. The Yackandandah community have wrestled this record by dint of hard work, community spirit and their tireless dedication to having very good fun. Record aside, they have succeeded in making opportunities for people to come together and make something much bigger than the seven kilometres of cloth triangles, all exactly 19 centimetres by 25 centimetres and hung exactly five centimetres apart on bias binding.