Scottish immigrant Fiona Abercrombie heralded the start of the 34th Illawarra Pipe Band Highland Games and Scottish Fair at Dapto.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Abercrombie was selected as Chieftain for the festival’s official duties. Carrying a Cromach (staff) her symbolic job was to round up the different clans.
To look the part Ms Abercrombie had her clan’s green coloured tartan, from 1057, flown out from Scotland and made into a pant suit. On her shoulder she proudly wore a 200-year-old broach in honour of her heritage which had belonged to her great, great, great grandmother.
‘‘My father James was a big supporter of the Illawarra Pipe Band when he was alive and we still carry on that tradition,’’ Ms Abercrombie said. ‘‘Three of my aunts were members.’’
Ms Abercrombie was 17 when her family immigrated from Kirkintilloch to settle in Towradgi in 1975.
They may have been 18,000km away from their natural homeland but hundreds of Scotsmen and their descendants donned kilts and ate haggis burgers as the sound of pipe bands drifted through the suburb.
There were Scottish games for the children, as well as Scottish and Irish dancing, caber tossing, shot put and a strong man event.
The competition was well represented by bands from the Knox Grammar School and The Scots College in Sydney.
Alex Porter, 16, from Scots College, who plays the snare drum, said the school’s extra-curricular activity was popular with more than a hundred students leading the Anzac Day parade in Sydney each year. The pipe band also competed at Edinburgh and in Switzerland.
‘‘It’s pretty exhilarating,’’ he said. ‘‘Everyone contributes to making the band better.’’