Bundaberg’s Peace Bells will toll next month for the annual ANZAB Ringing Festival, that will attract more than 60 bell ringers to the region.
In its 60th year the Ringing Festival is a highlight on the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers calendar, and facilitator Russell Cobb said it was a feat for region to host such an event.
He said ringing of the Peace Bells for the festival would sound through the city from the afternoon of Friday, 11 June, throughout Sunday, 13 June, and again on the morning of Monday, 14 June.
This year the festival is a combined event, initiated by the ringers of Christ Church, Bundaberg, and St Paul's, Maryborough.
Russell said there will be ringing at both churches, and on a unique LittleToze Mini Ring which will be in Bundaberg on Sunday and Monday, with the community is invited to go along and participate in the ringing of the mini ring near Bundaberg Library.
The LittleToze Mini Ring is a set of eight bells (tenor 10lb 10oz) housed in Brisbane, set up on specially adapted trailer which allows for easy transportation, it was donated to ANZAB by Mike and Reg Toze.
“The community should keep their ears open for the Quarter Peal, which is continuous ringing for 45 minutes, that will happen at different times and on both sets of bells,” Russell said.
“We are organising this festival for the first time, so we are new kids on the block, but the excitement around it is really wonderful.
“The Peace Bells are part of the fabric of the Bundaberg community, actually they are the heaviest set of six in Australia, which gives a louder ring compared to the lighters peals.”
Russell said it was not only great for the local economy to have such a festival held in the Bundaberg Region, but it was also a coup for the Bells Committee.
“We will have real bell ringing enthusiasts come here for this,” Russell said.
“Some of the most experienced ringers – which we here are not yet. We are really the new kids on the block and its an honour to host the Bell Ringing Festival.”
Earlier reports:
- Six Peace Bells ring for the first time in Bundaberg
- Peace bells a unique first for Bundaberg
- Peace Bells honour those who served
To hear the Peace Bells and be at church on Sunday morning was delightful.
Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.
Edward Houseman The Shropshire Lad.