May 20, 2015
The Mayor’s Gala Charity Ball is being held at Kingaroy Town Hall this Saturday … and there’ll be one very rare item on offer at this year’s auction that’s sure to raise interest.
It’s gavel used in former Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Cabinet Room at the Lands Building in Brisbane’s George Street.
The Lands Building Cabinet Room was the inner seat of power until 1971 when the State Government moved into the then newly-built Executive Building.
The gavel was used to call Cabinet meetings to order, and in its long life it has overseen the creation of many key initiatives that have made Queensland the state it is today.
If it could talk, it would no doubt have many tales to tell about ideas floated and dashed; policies created and abandoned; and arguments won and lost – stories never fully told in Cabinet papers.
The gavel was gifted to Mayor Wayne Kratzmann for this year’s auction by Greg Hallam, the CEO of the Local Government Association of Queensland.
Mr Hallam said the gavel had been in the LGAQ’s offices for so long he was unsure precisely how the Association had come by it in the first place.
But he hoped it would help raise a lot of money for South Burnett causes.
Mayor Kratzmann said he was surprised by Mr Hallam’s generous gesture and has had the gavel framed by Flamingo Wish in Kingaroy prior to Saturday’s auction.
“This is an extremely rare piece of key historical memorabilia that deserves a first-class presentation, and I’m sure it will appeal to a history or politics buff somewhere.
“You really can’t put a price on a one-off item like this. But we’ll certainly try.”
The Charity Ball is the major annual fundraiser for the Mayor’s Community Benefit Fund, which distributes grants to South Burnett non-profit groups who might not ordinarily be able to receive funding from the State or Federal Governments, or other grant bodies.
“We have a lot of wonderful non-profit groups in the South Burnett who do a great deal of good for our communities but are desperately under-funded,” the Mayor said.
“I created the Mayor’s Community Benefit Fund so that we’d have a local body that could help them out without any excessive red tape.
“But beyond raising money for the fund, I have no role in how it’s distributed.
“That’s decided by a committee of volunteers who pick a new area of focus for every funding round, and they just let me know who’s been given a grant two or three times a year whenever they finish a round so I can present the cheques.”
This year’s Gala Charity Ball will be the third since the event kicked off in 2013.
In a short time the evening has grown to become one of the high points of the region’s social calendar.
Some tickets – at $165 per head – are still available for Saturday night’s festivities, which will include canapes and wine on arrival, a sumptuous three course dinner, entertainment from international ABBA tribute band Bjorn Again supported by Midnight Groove, and the charity auction that will likely see the rare gavel move to a new home.
They can be booked by phoning (07) 4189-9100.
