Everything you need to know about Grand Central Floral Parade

Thousands will gather in the streets of Toowoomba this weekend to check out the colourful floats in the Grand Central Floral Parade. Here’s all you need to know about the big event.

Rhylea Millarrhylea.millar@news.com.au

@rhylea__millar

6 min read

September 16, 2022 - 6:00AM

Toowoomba Chronicle

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It’s considered one of Toowoomba’s biggest events and this year will be no exception at the Grand Central Floral Parade.

As part of the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, the highly-anticipated event will fill the CBD with plenty of colour as floats travel through the streets of the Garden City.

Brightly coloured floats will be decorated to coincide with this year’s theme of ‘Reflect, Connect and Sparkle.’

Toowoomba councillor James O’Shea said the decision to expand the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers to a month-long event had resulted in “extraordinary” financial and social benefits for the region.

“Once again, our incredible event will take place over 30 petal-filled days, to allow for greater visitation, business connections and community engagement,” he said.
“Taking centre stage, as they should, will be flowers and local flavours, as the event continues to bloom into a truly region-wide experience for both locals and visitors.”

The Grand Central team (from left) John Zhang, Julie Thompson and Georgina Bayly work on their float for the Grand Central Floral Parade. Picture: Nev Madsen.

This year, there will be 20 community floats, 19 marching and walking groups, nine corporate, four multicultural celebrations, three creative visuals and two visiting float entrants featured.

Eight bands will also participate in the Grand Central Floral Parade.

This year, the Pride Float will be supported by the newly formed MOSAIC (Moving Out of Shadows and Into Community) Group, in partnership with Carers Queensland.

MOSAIC co-founder and Carers Queensland co-ordinator Courtney Ruler said history was made last year when the Pride Float participated in the parade for the very first time.

Ms Ruler, who is the proud daughter of a trans woman, is an advocate for the LGBTIQA+ community and is passionate about creating a more inclusive society.

Her Dad made the decision to transition into a woman about 18 years ago, at a time when there was less acceptance.

“It was completely unheard of back then, especially in regional Queensland and the only support services available at the time were in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney,” she said.

“I’m very excited this year in that my Dad feels comfortable enough to join our procession this year as a float participant, as well as other members of the community.”

Helping prepare the Pride float are (from left) Courtney Ruler, Annette Bromdal and Mickey Berry for the grand parade of Carnival of Flowers 2022. The float is supported by MOSAIC and Carers Queensland. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The Pride float which was formerly a pirate ship, has been painted in rainbow stripes, is 12m in length, 7m in height and will have 40 participants bringing it to life on Saturday.

Member for the Greens party Mickey Berry, 23, who identifies as non-binary, said the float showed progression within a traditionally conservative area.

“It’s really cool to have such a big visual representation for our queer community, especially at an event like the Carnival of Flowers,” they said.

“Growing up we didn’t have these sorts of opportunities available and people come from all over Australia and Queensland to see this event.”

Lesa Bradshaw (Darling Downs Division Vice President) works on the QCWA's entry in the Grand Central Floral Parade. Picture: Nev Madsen.

QCWA Darling Downs Division vice-president Lesa Bradshaw said Saturday’s big event would be extra special for her as this year also marked the organisation’s 100th anniversary.

To mark the special occasion, the QCWA float will feature a three-tier rotating cake.

“We started working on the idea earlier this year and once the theme Reflect, Connect and Sparkle was announced, about four members and their husbands started working on it from July,” she said.

“The theme is really significant for us because our 100 year celebration has been all about reflection, we have connected with the community during that time and … we’ve used as much glitter to decorate the float as possible.”

The Grand Central Floral Parade will depart from the corner of Herries and Hume Sts, through Ruthven, Margaret and Hume Sts and finishes on Godsall Street Oval on the corner of Hume and Godsall Sts.

Aileen Cater-Steele (President Darling Downs Irish Club) works on the Irish Club entry in the Grand Central Floral Parade. Friday, September 16, 2022. Picture: Nev Madsen.

This weekend is expected to be the busiest on the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers event calendar, with about 60,000 people lining the streets to check out the parade alone last year.

In fact, the month-long event brought more than 284,000 visitors to the region in 2021, 155,000 of which were overnight stays and approximately $22 million was spent.

Rosalie House general manager Renee Brown said by turning Carnival into a month-long event and with the addition of the #trEATS menu, she had witnessed benefits for the hospitality and tourism sectors.

“I would say it’s been about the same amount of people in the last two years, but for this time of year we’ve seen about a 20 per cent increase in visitors,” she said.

“We’re expecting plenty of visitors with nine days of bus tours coming to the restaurant from Saturday and we’re so excited to share our local produce and this beautiful part of regional Queensland with them.”

Manager of Oak Tree Retirement Village, Sarah Waters, works on the float for the Grand Central Floral Parade. Picture: Nev Madsen.

In addition to the traction gained from its stall at the Food and Wine Festival, Ms Brown said its roulade of meringue with mascarpone, local rhubarb and raspberry offering as part of the #trEATS campaign had also proven to be successful.

Toowoomba Councillor James O’Shea said he was expecting another great turn out this weekend.

“Covid obviously played its part when we were unable to have the parade in 2020, but when it returned last year and I had the honour of walking through the parade at the end with the Mayor, I got to see the smiles on people’s faces and that was really quite moving,” he said.

“Carnival means so much to so many people because everyone has a connection to it, whether they grew up walking in the parade or watching from the street.”

Wayne and Narelle Schick, 4 Booth Court, Oakey. Chronicle Garden Competition 2022. Carnival of Flowers. August 28,2022

While the city will be filled with hustle and bustle this weekend, our friends on the outskirts are hoping to welcome crowds too.

Oakey residents Wayne and Narelle Schick were not expecting to take out the Regional Grand Champion award in The Chronicle Garden Competition this year, but were pleasantly surprised when they did.

“There are some beautiful gardens in the regional areas and (people should visit those areas because) we have a lot of different varieties here than what is grown in Toowoomba,” she said.

“It was very exciting to receive an award, but we don’t do it to win prizes … we do it for our own pleasure of walking around the garden and seeing a new shrub of flower blooming.”

Wayne and Narelle Schick, 4 Booth Court, Oakey. Chronicle Garden Competition 2022. Carnival of Flowers. August 28,2022

The couple who have been entering the competition since 1988, have faced harsher conditions than most, with Oakey gardeners battling drought and severe frost over the years.

Fortunately, the passionate gardeners said temperatures didn’t fall below minus three degrees this year, creating beautiful conditions for gardens to bloom.

When it comes to the secrets of growing an award-winning garden, Ms Schick isn’t shy about revealing the secrets of the trade and said it all comes down to persistence.

“If you plant something and it dies, don’t just give up, but try another spot and see what happens,” she said.

“We used to plant tulips all around the garden but they were never really successful, so we tried planting them in one spot at the front of the house and they have bloomed beautifully – that’s the only place we’ll plant them now.”

Holly Castles and daughter Grace admire the floral display in Queens Park during Carnival of Flowers 2022, Thursday, September 15, 2022. Picture: Kevin Farmer