When the Olympic Torch came to the Southern Highlands | Photos
As Olympics fever gains momentum, we reminisce on the journey the famed torch was carried through the Macarthur region and Southern Highlands ahead of the famed Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The Bowral News
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With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics around the corner, Australians are starting to feel the stirrings of Olympic Games fever. Although it will be a different Olympics to past events, the thrill of seeing our nation’s best athletes compete stays unchanged.
To celebrate the occasion, we’re taking a trip down memory lane to September 4, 2000, when the Olympic Torch came to the Southern Highlands.
The torch travelled through Australia for a hundred days, passing through a thousand towns. The Southern Highlands Olympic Committee had worked tirelessly to ensure the historical occasion went smoothly.
Gordon Lewis, who served as a local councillor for more than three decades, was the council representative on the committee.
“Those on the committee did a tremendous job,” he said.
“It was a very momentous occasion for not only Australia for the Wingecarribee Shire and everywhere else the torch went to.”
Mr Lewis said he had been thrilled to see the level of enthusiasm and engagement from local residents.
“There were crowds lined right through the shire as the torch runners ran through,” he said.
Local Commonwealth Games gold medallist Heather Turland ran the final leg of the relay to Bowral’s Bradman Oval, where she lit the cauldron in a striking ceremony captured in our photo gallery.
Mr Lewis said the Olympic torch represented something special to the Southern Highlands.
“We’ve always been very sporting minded in this area,” he said.
“The people of this Shire thought very highly of the Olympics and the people who put in all the time and effort to try and reach that peak.”
Mr Lewis, who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his service to the Southern Highlands community, ran a local leg of the relay with the torch. He said it was a “brilliant” feeling, despite the flame initially going out.
“To hold that torch and be a part of history was a feeling you don’t forget,” he said.
“It was a great honour to represent the Shire and all the people present and even the people that had passed.”
See the stirring photos of the Sydney 2000 Olympic torch being carried through the Southern Highlands below.
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