In less than three weeks Wollongong gets its chance to participate in the Queen’s Baton Relay in the lead up to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
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In less than three weeks Wollongong gets its chance to participate in the Queen’s Baton Relay in the lead up to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
The eyes of the world will be on Wollongong when a select group of baton bearers get the honour of carrying the important symbol through the streets of the city on February 5, 2018.
It will initially be skydived into Stuart Park at 10.10am by Skydive Australia/Skydive the Beach as part of a school and community celebration that will prepare for its arrival at 9.45am.
A spokesperson from Wollongong City Council said that will include live drumming, a welcome and presentation about the Queen’s Baton Relay.
The first of 19 local baton bearers will then start the Wollongong leg of the year long global relay leading up the the Gold Coast games.
It will run from Stuart Park, along Cliff Road to Flagstaff Hill where it is expected to do a lap before proceeding along Marine Drive to Crown Street.
It will arrive in Crown Street Mall around 11.35am.
There will be a second community event in the mall from around 11.40am.
It will include live music and the chance to meet the Illawarra baton bearers.
The Queen’s baton then moves to Kiama where a community celebration is planned at the Kiama Showground and 14 baton-bearers will relay it through the streets. Then Nowra where it will arrive on the banks of the Shoalhaven River by Royal Australian Navy helicopter at 4.30pm before taking trip across the river on a Navy RHIB enroute to Nowra Aquatic Park.
From there 18 baton-bearers will relay it through the streets of the city centre before a carnival is held on the lawns of the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre.
The baton left Buckingham Palace on March 13, 2017 to travel through every Commonwealth nation and territory enroute to the Gold Coast where it will arrive in early April, 2018.
A key moment of the opening ceremony on April 4 will be when the Queen’s message is read aloud at the opening ceremony to officially declare the games open.
The Queen’s Baton arrived in Australia on Christmas Day for the start of the final 100 day 40,000 kilometre host nation leg of its symbolic journey around the world.
Beginning in Canberra on December 25 the Australian relay involves around 3800 baton-bearers including the 19 in Wollongong, 14 in Kiama and 18 in Nowra.
Relay schedule
09:42 AM Anthony Boucaut
10:21 AM Stuart Park Community Celebration
10:47 AM Marie Kay
10:50 AM Barbara Edwards
10:52 AM Mark Hill
10:55 AM Raymond Brown
10:57 AM Maximus Singleton
10:59 AM Hugh Carpenter
11:02 AM Greg Copeland
11:04 AM Nicole Calarco
11:06 AM Geoff Phillips
11:09 AM Ron McKeon
11:11 AM Susie McKeon
11:13 AM Mitchell Wright
11:16 AM Thomas Dawson
11:18 AM Natalie Gartshore
11:21 AM Grant Plecas
11:23 AM Victor Schweikert
11:25 AM Josie McCann
11:28 AM Benton McCann
11:35 AM Wollongong Community Celebration
Relay schedule
12:58 PM Don Hodgekiss
01:01 PM Nayeli Gajardo
01:03 PM Kim Lacey
01:06 PM Nick McInerney
01:08 PM David Leigh
01:11 PM John Chaplin
01:13 PM Karen Murphy
01:16 PM Paul Houghton
01:18 PM Colin Rathbone
01:25 PM Lloyd Ferguson
01:28 PM Heather McAlpine
01:30 PM Kathleen Tanner
01:33 PM Donald Brown
01:35 PM Sally Fitzgibbons
01:44 PM Kiama Community Celebration
Relay schedule
04:44 PM Captain Fiona Sneath
04:46 PM Julie Dart
04:49 PM Andrew McVey
04:51 PM Rajarshi Ray
04:54 PM Rosemary Morgan
04:56 PM Ken Hutt
04:58 PM Susan Courtney
05:01 PM Leslie Sykes
05:03 PM Rodney Crouch
05:06 PM Jan Gilmour
05:08 PM Stuart Leyland
05:11 PM Craig Norris
05:13 PM Michael Vassallo
05:15 PM Casey Sablowski (Eastham)
05:18 PM William Barry
05:20 PM Makynli Dale
05:23 PM Melissa McManus
05:25 PM Kristine Vincent
05:27 PM Raymond Vincent
05:30 PM Nowra Community Celebration