EVENTS
Those amazing Macquarie Matrons
Story and photos John Elliott
Get
a bunch of bush women together and look out - anything can happen. And "happen"
it did in late October when 700 people attended the second Macquarie Matrons
Ball in a huge storage shed at the Namoi Cotton facility in a paddock near
Trangie, central western NSW.
"There were a couple of us who were on lots of other committees and
we raised $100 here, $1000 there," recalls Macquarie Matrons president
and event organiser, Amanda Ferrari, of "Galteemore", Trangie.
"We dreamed of raising a huge amount of money and decided we would
organise a fabulous glamorous and glitzy night bringing a bit of the city
to the country.
Our first Macquarie Matrons function was in 1999. I told the girls we would
raise $50,000 on the night and they all looked at me as though I was stark
raving mad. We ended up raising $70,000 for Child Flight."
Hosted by The Great Outdoors TV personality, Ernie Dingo, guests at this
year's exclusive black tie function enjoyed a three-course catered
meal by STIX Catering, entertainment from Dubbo-based Circus West, and dancing
to the music of the John Pickworth Orchestra.
The champagne flowed and the Macquarie Matrons raised $125,000 for the
Royal Flying Doctor Service and $10,000 for a local initiative titled Macquarie
Twenty One Hundred, a visionary group working in health, community, tourism,
vegetation and land use, salinity and water. 
Full story and photos: Issue 20, December 01 / January 02
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And to see what's coming up, try our OUTBACK events calendar.
