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2010
2010 Winners Announced
Written by Graham Miller   

Traditional Scarecrow Winner

Artistic Scarecrow Winner

Childrens Scarecrow Winner

Well its official! The judges have made their decisions. And we can now let the whole world know who won the prizes for the 2010 season of the Mary Valley Scarecrow Festival.

Situated just behind Queensland's beautiful Sunshine Coast region on the east coast of Australia, the Mary Valley offers scenic beauty and wide open spaces through pasture land and state forest. There are plenty of outdoor activities available, such as horse riding, camping, canoe trips on Lake Borumba and the Mary River (and its tributaries including Yabba Creek), bush walking, fishing, and water skiing.

 

It is also home to fun loving friendly people. One only needs to view the entries in this year's scarecrow festival to see that. We had 78 entries registered in this "come back" year for the festival, and we have heard anecdotes of several unregistered ones too.

 

The quality of entry was very high this year and all the judges had quite a lot of difficulty choosing the winners and place getters. But choose they did and you can see their choices by using "2010 Winners" in the side menu. On the detail page for each entry, you will also see the comments made by the judges.

And who were our wonderful judges that gave up their own time to help us celebrate? Read on ...

Our local State Member for Nicklin, Peter Wellington MP, judged the traditional category. Peter's farming background prepared him well for the onerous task of choosing from the quality field. In the case of the winner, Peter said "it is a stand out winner" after viewing most of the other scarecrows and struggling to promote one of his short list over the other. Then along came the Imbil Red Cross one, and all was clear to him.

Popular Sunshine Coast radio personality, John Stokes, from ABC Coast FM local radio, judged the artistic category. John and his family embraced their task of judging this category with much vigour and enthusiasm. John also found it very hard to choose one of their short list over the other. But with the help of his family, succeed he did. In the end it was a symbol of modern busy life that swayed him. So the Conondale Playgroup got the guernsey.

The enthusiasm for the task of judging the children's category could not be overstated. Jasmin Stokes was originally coming along to help her father do the judging. After meeting her, and seeing the obvious joy she had for the task, and her decision making skills, we assigned her the role of judge for the children's category in her own right. The Stokes family could not get to the Rachael Grieger's scarecrow in Amamoor due to the property being inside the perimeter of the Country Music Muster site on the first weekend of judging. They went back a second weekend so Jasmine could see the scarecrow first hand. What dedication and commitment! And the winner is ... Jaylee & Kalani's flying fairy scarecrows in Brooloo.

We thank all those that contributed to this year's festival. Stay tuned for stories about the place getters and news of the People's Choice Awards.

Hooroo!
Graham
Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 18:15
 
Scarecrows invade Mary Valley

Scarecrows invade Mary Valley

Imbil scarecrow 10 Mary Valley Child CareBy Kaili Parker-Price

Despite a few black fingernails and some bruises, the kids at Mary Valley Child Care in Imbil finished their scarecrow in time for the judging round this weekend!

Director Cathy Hallows said the youngsters managed to turn a bit of wood and crafty bits and bobs into a legitimate 'crow for the Mary Valley Scarecrow Festival, which officially started on August 21.

"They absolutely loved it, and they even know that scarecrows are used to scare away the real crows out of the fields," Ms Hallows said.

More than 50 children in the Tree Frogs room for three-five year olds with group leader Gail Lahey worked on the entry. It is the first time the centre has entered the competition.

Scarecrows in each of the valley towns have been judged this week and the finalists will be checked out by Sunshine Coast radio personality John Stokes and Member for Nicklin Peter Wellington, who will choose the Mary Valley champions.

The Mary Valley awards will be presented to the winners on Saturday, September 25 at 2:30pm at the Kenilworth Hall during the first day of the Kenilworth Celebrates Arts Festival, and will launch a photo exhibition of entries with the People's Choice Award.

A scarecrow map, and a website featuring the history of the festival and a comprehensive gallery of photos, will soon be available.

(Right) BUSY BUILDERS: These youngsters put the finishing touches on their scarecrow entry at Imbil. Pictured from left are Caleb Carter, Noah Cody, Riley Adams and Ruby Bujeya.

(Below) ARTISTIC TOUCH: Marie and Max Sutton put a lot of effort into this scarecrow entry depicting a real estate property for sale.

Its a gold mine scarecrow
Last Updated on Thursday, 09 September 2010 10:02
 
How to enter in 2010
Written by Graham Miller   

If you want to be in the running for awards in this year’s festival, then you need to register your scarecrow. If not, you can just build your scarecrow and display it for fun. No one will harass you for that. The more scarecrows, the merrier.

The towns that enter the competition will judge their own scarecrows from the 21st to the 26th of August, and present 3 finalists in each category to the valley wide judging which will happen between the 28th and the 31st August. The Mary Valley awards will be presented to the winners on Saturday the 25th September at 2:30pm at the Kenilworth Hall during the first day of the Kenilworth Celebrates Arts Festival, with a People’s Choice Award voted and presented on the same day.

Registered scarecrows will be:-

  • Entered in one of 3 categories; Traditional, Artistic, or Children’s.
  • Displayed on a Google Map (with photo if supplied).
  • Added to the 2010 page of the scarecrows.org.au web site with photo if supplied.
  • On display in photo form during the presentations and the week following so they can be included in the People’s Choice Awards.

Here's the procedure to enter:

  1. Plan what scarecrow you are going to build.
  2. Choose the location for your scarecrow. It will be quite acceptable, and even recommended, for several scarecrows to be grouped in a good viewing location.
  3. Register your scarecrow with a centre or town contact close to where you live. Forms are available from each town or cut out the form from this edition of the Voice. The form has contact details for each registration centre.
  4. Receive your laminated registration number to display on your scarecrow.
  5. You can optionally write a poem, limerick, or some short story that adds to the character of your scarecrow. Just think about what you want people to think about your scarecrow and attach it to your ’crow.
  6. Have your scarecrow in place by the 21st August 2010 and place your registration number on the scarecrow.
  7. If you are able, take up to 3 photos of the scarecrow in its place to show of your unique design and send them to your registration centre. We would suggest you stand back a bit and take one from the best angle to take in the surrounding scene. Then get closer and take one from the front and perhaps the side. The registration number must be visible in one of the photos.

If you are not able to take your own photos, or don’t think your camera skills are good enough, then perhaps you could take advantage of an offer made by the Mary Valley Photography Club to come out and photo your scarecrows for you. Contact Brett Watson on 54 845 455 or 0429 118 152.

Good luck and have fun.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 September 2010 19:58
 
Join the 2010 Mary Valley Scarecrow Festival
Written by Graham Miller   

Yes folks! Its back by popular demand! All the fun of the Scarecrow Festival. And it is coming to your streets and paddocks from the 21st August right through September. Enter your scarecrow in either the “Traditional”, “Artistic”, or “Children” category.

This is a great opportunity to have some fun and dazzle our friends and visitors with our Aussie ingenuity. So how do you participate? Its simple, register your scarecrow in the local town of your choosing. Then make your scarecrow and have it in place where it can be easily seen from the road. Make sure its in place just before 21st August which is the official opening of Scarecrow Season. Don’t put it out too early, you want it to look its best for the judging which happens during the first week or two.

Each town that participates will have their own judges to choose the finalists that will represent them in each category at the Mary Valley finals. All finalists will receive a certificate.

The top 3 entries in each category from each town will be entered into the Mary Valley Finals. The finals judging will happen on, or soon after, the weekend of August 28/29. We will have a couple of celebrity judges and the only criteria will be the “wow” factor. From a finalist point of view, we are not looking for the best construction, the most elaborate design or other such things. We just want to have some fun and crown the scarecrow that has the most “Wow, that’s an amazing scarecrow!”. Yes, its totally subjective. We’ll just let the judges worry about the reasons why they chose one over the other.

The presentations for finalists and winners will be on Saturday 25th September at the Kenilworth Hall. Photos of the scarecrows will be on display for the following week and we hope to have a “people choice” award for each category.

Anyone can build a scarecrow! Here are 5 quick tips:

  1. Skeleton: 2 wooden pieces (e.g. broomsticks) - one 6ft long & another 3ft. Attach them to form a cross.
  2. Head: Pillowcase or hessian bag (need filling), or pumpkin. Paint a face and put head on the top of the cross.
  3. Hands & legs: Put a shirt over your cross-shaped frame. You can use gloves for hands or tie the ends of the sleeves so the stuffing will stay inside. Put the pants on - insert the centre of the skeleton into one of the pant legs. Leave enough wood at the bottom of the leg to stake your scarecrow in the ground. Tie the legs.
  4. Stuffing: Use straw, hay, clothing, plastic bags, newspapers. Stuff the pants first, tuck the shirt in, button & zip the pants. Tie rope or twine around the waist to act as a belt. Stuff the shirt arms first, then the rest of the torso.
  5. Accessorise: You can sew /glue a hat onto the head of your ‘crow. Other options - a wig, scarves, ties, shoes.

Or you could just let your imagination flow!

If you cannot find your local scarecrow committee to register, contact Graham Miller on 5446 0100 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Last Updated on Thursday, 25 August 2011 15:32
 


Major Sponsor

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For the benefit of our local community.

Contribution:

  • Web site design
  • Joomla customisation
  • SOBI2 Directory module configuration
  • Data and photo preparation and entry

We also put in a great many hours of festival coordination.

Sponsors

We would like to thank the following sponsors:-

Mary Valley Inc for hosting the website, auspicing the project, and assistance with printing & promotion.

Cr Jenny McKay for signage around the southern end of the valley.

Kenilworth SES for lamination of registration numbers.

The perpetual Artistic Category Trophy was brought to you by:
Cedar Creations
Jack Wilms - Artist
cedarcreations.com.au
Phone: (07) 5472 3996

And Kaili Parker-Price for all sorts of assistance including photography, story writing and information dissemination.