Cane Country Squares

On the 18th of August, Cane Country Squares celebrated Matt’s 40th Birthday. Before Matt arrived for our usual Friday night of dancing, the hall had been decorated with silver and red balloons and streamers. On arrival he was given a red hat and bow tie and a 40th badge to wear for the night.

The sound equipment had been set up and a TV was running photos from the day Matt was born up until our current learner class with Matt teaching Mia to Square Dance.

A photo frame had been made, inspired by the frame made for the recent 40th QCA State Convention, in Buderim. Check our website 2023 Photo Gallery for more of these photos taken on the night.

We had a great turn out with two squares on the floor most of the night. Some of Matt’s Family and past members also attended.

We even got two squares of Plus with Anita dancing. “No ‘Crossfires!’ “

Ella and Mia both performed their own dances for Matt. Mia had been practicing her own chorography in the hall for a month before dancing and between sessions each Friday night.

Supper was an enormous spread of savoury and sweet treats, with all members bringing a plate. Adding to that was of course, Matt’s birthday cake. On cutting the cake Matt was presented with a gift from the club and a card signed by all members.

Alan gave a speech about Matt’s long history with Cane Country Squares. Alan spoke of Matt as a kid, playing and learning to dance with the other children attending the club at that time. Alan saw Matt growing into a teenager and meeting Anita through square dancing. 

Credit was also given to Shirley Kelly for encouraging Matt to become a caller more than 20 years ago. The speech finished with how much we appreciated his skill and dedication which keeps our enjoyment of dancing and our club going. 

Sandy, who often reads a humorous poem at our special events, had written a poem specially for the night to honour Matt and what he means to us. 

Matt gave his own speech in appreciation of our efforts and how much his family and friends, including his Square Dance family, had shaped his life.

Another fun theme night, 14th of July was our Pyjama night. The hall was decorated with some cut out painted pictures of pyjamas and all members came dress in PJs. 

Nifty came dressed in a floral op shop ensemble. Chris dressed in bright yellow printed with the ABC kids Hoot character and Scott came in a Koala onesie. We also had a couple visiting on the night, surprised by our theme.

We had a good turn out with two squares able to dance mainstream level. At one point everyone got on the floor for a Plus bracket. The back square had some fun with a few Mainstream dancers, trying to keep up and repair their square, with the help of Plus dancers.

It was a mild night and still quite warm in the hall, so dressing gowns didn’t stay on for long. If you want to see more photos from the night check out our photo gallery.

Friday 5th of May was our Dance for Heart, annual fund raiser for heart health. Numbers were down a little with a few people, including myself away that night. 

Heart shaped decoration were up in the hall and most dressed in red or with a heart theme. 

I am yet to see Matt’s spectacular heart suit in person, but it certainly made an impression on those attending the night.

Funds on the night where raised by donations and a raffle for a large fruit and veggie hamper. 

$200 was donated to the Bundaberg Health Promotions Group to support their Heart Start activities.

Thanks to Anita and Jo L for taking photos to add to our photo gallery and web site. 

Friday 26th of May was our AGM. It was quite well attended considering most of us are not fond of long drawn out meetings. 

As it turned out, we had plenty of time to dance, with the AGM completed in a record time of less than 16 minutes. All office bearers were returned to the same positions unopposed. Our only general business saw our members draw changed from the entire member list (and unclaimed prize money adding to the draw the following month) to the draw now including only those in attendance.

Friday April 7th was Good Friday and as is our practice, there was no dance held that night. 

The following Friday on the 14th we had something a little different with an Easter Egg Hunt.

We had no special dress up but Jo K and her daughter wore Easter theme hair accessories at the front table and the hall was decorated.

The kids where given little baskets while adults got small Easter bags, to collect tiny chocolate eggs placed around the hall on chairs and window sills. Mia won the closest guess for the number of Easter eggs in the jar.

Jo L was away but sent along some hand made Easter egg decorated biscuits and Sandy volunteered in the kitchen.

The next Friday, 21st April coincided with the National Square Dance Convention in Adelaide, SA. While Matt and family were enjoying the Convention, Rob ran recordings of Matt so we could still dance. Matt had recorded live from a few previous Fridays. 

We had a really fun night. This was the second time we have danced to recordings of Matt. Recording levels and balance between Matt’s voice and the music were much better than our first go. It was like Matt was in the room and had us laughing when a number of his comments while we danced matched up again with who was on the floor and a few of us responded like we could engage with him.

Friday 28th Matt was back with us. 

Due to hand luggage weight restrictions on his flight, he had taken out the club member list book and forgotten to put it back in his laptop bag. This means our member draw was not drawn and will now be next week May 5th. 

May 5th will also be our annual Heart Dance fund raiser. 

Dress in red or with a heart theme.

Our final post for our 40th Birthday Weekend is for our last session held on Sunday morning 12th of March. 

This was a huge weekend of dancing and while it took a lot of time and effort to put together, it was well worth it and enjoyed by all. 

Our callers, Matthew Mills, Steve Turner and Nev McLachlan changed from their weekend theme of wearing red, white and blue shirts to ‘The Bundy Boys’ shirts, complete with a polar bear with a microphone.

As is the custom, dress on the Sunday is causal for those heading home directly after the dance.

Many ladies still wore skirts, some with more casual design square dance skirts and low volume petticoats.

Even though some had a long drive ahead of them, the Sunday morning was very well attended. Dancing started at 9:30am with SSD, Mainstream and Rounds. 

Steve Turner called some fun workshops with couples passing between facing lines of three.

The callers again got a chance to dance with us while they took turns on stage.

It is always nice to see Matt and Anita dancing.

Nev and Bev also got a chance to dance together.

Once again, thanks to all that helped make this weekend a great success.

Dancing finished at 12pm followed by a sausage sizzle. Some of the Cane Country Squares Kids helped serve the snags.

For more photos, keep checking our website 2023 Photo Gallery and our Video Library for updates. The 2023 Videos will be added in the next few weeks.

The main event dance for Cane Country Squares 40th Birthday was the Saturday evening, March 11th at Coronation Hall. 

SSD and Mainstream was again called by our three great feature callers, Steve Turner, Nev McLachlan and our own club caller, Matthew Mills.

The whole weekend it was great to see people dressing up, with a few of our ladies rarely seen in skirts at any other time. Lots of couples came in lovely matching outfits all weekend. Saturday night saw some extra fancy outfits and very full petticoats. 

The callers again took turns calling and had opportunities to dance with the rest of us. This session was the largest turn out for the weekend.

During the night we also had Bev McLachlan cue Round Dancing. A lot of us really enjoy watching this even if we can’t Round Dance ourselves.

A small stall of square dance clothing was set up in the corner of the hall, with a few other second hand items changing hands during the night.

In the opposite corner by the front door, the slide show was still popular all night, with small groups gathering at times to point out people they recognised. 

The raffle table was also set up by the entry door. Around 25 tickets were drawn out until all the prizes had been collected, with each winner progressively choosing something from the table. 

Alan Haslemore donated a large veggie tray. Thanks also go to a number of other members that made personal donations to the raffle.

As a thank you to the businesses that donated to our raffles they are listed at the bottom of the page with Google Map locations and websites, if they have them. Please support these businesses if you can.

The club’s birthday cake was cut by our guest callers and cuer, Steve Turner, Nev and Bev McLauchlan and Shirley Kelly. Shirley, who is still very active in the club, was our club caller and director for 32 years, before handing the position to Matthew Mills.

After the cake was cut, June, the President of the Queensland Square Dance Society, presented Matt with a certificate of appreciation to mark the club’s 40th birthday.

During the evening we had two poems read by Sandy. The first one included a few helpers to perform a skit of the poem. These were some of our newest dancers, Alan, Shirley and Gay. Matt assisted Sandy with the second poem.

Supper was a huge spread of sandwiches, cakes and slices again with tea and coffee available all night. Thanks to all those who bought in those home made treats for us. 

Small thankyou gifts were presented to Penny and Helen for working in the kitchen all weekend, along with Jo Lester for her part in organising the catering. 

Thank you gifts also went to Rob and Jo Read for working on the digital photo presentation, George for his help at the door and Alan Haslemore for the mass of plants provided for the hall. 

The whole committee, consisting of Jo L, Jo K, Jo R, Pam, Anita and Fran were thanked for their involvement with special mention of Fran’s work on creating the new stage back drop banner.

Special Bundaberg gifts were also presented to our feature callers and cuer, Nev and Bev McLachlan and Steve Turner. 

Of course the evening was mostly about the dancing and we all did plenty of that and enjoyed ourselves in the process.

With the final dance of the night done, we head home to rest up for the final dance of the weekend on Sunday morning.

Business sponsors for our raffle were –

Australia Post, Bundaberg South Post Office

Bundaberg South LPO, Shop 4 54 Walker Street, BUNDABERG, QLD, 4670

Southside Central News

Shop 2 Southside Central Shopping Centre, 56 Walker St, Walkervale QLD 4670

Subway Bundaberg South

Cnr Walker & Barolin Streets Shop 7A Southside Central Shopping Centre, Bundaberg South QLD 4670

Sugarland Tavern

52 Johnston St, Avoca QLD 4670

www.sugarlandtavern.com.au

Taylors Hardware

65 Targo St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670

taylorshardware.com

Bundaberg Wholesale Palms and Plants

26 Kleins Rd, Bundaberg QLD 4670

www.facebook.com/bundabergwholesalepalms

Bunnings

30 Johanna Blvd, Kensington QLD 4670

www.bunnings.com.au/stores/qld/bundaberg

Salon on Sims

184 Barolin St, Walkervale QLD 4670

www.facebook.com/salononsims

Fran’s Sewing Solutions

City Centre Arcade, Shop 17/142 Bourbong St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670

www.facebook.com/people/Frans-Sewing-Solutions

Mitre 10

1 Electra Street, Bundaberg, Queensland, 4670

www.mitre10.com.au/stores/qld/bundaberg-sunshine-mitre-10

Repco West Bundaberg

21 Johanna Blvd, Kensington QLD 4670

www.repco.com.au/store/Repco_West-Bundaberg

Chippindall’s Office Choice / Nextra Newsagency

116/118 Bourbong St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670

chippindalls.com.au/locations/chippindalls-downtown

Bundy Bowl & Leisure Complex

17 Lester St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670

www.bundybowl.com.au

Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse

9 Barolin St, Bundaberg Central QLD

www.goodpricepharmacy.com.au

Shine – The Art Of Hair

2/54 Walker St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670

shinetheartofhair.webs.com

Our weekend dance continued at Coronation Hall from 3 – 5pm with the Plus and A sessions. 

It was so good to see multiple squares on the floor with the opportunity to dance with different people for each set.

It was a full on day of dancing so some of the A level dances skipped the first SSD, Mainstream session to get the most out of the Plus and A dancing, ahead of the evenings main event.

This was the first Plus level dance of this size for some of our members. Others that had not yet reached a competent Plus level stayed to watch the whole session.

Our feature callers made the Plus and A dancing fun and challenging.

With three callers to share the time on stage, they also got a chance again to dance at this level.

The next post will cover our evening dance from 7 to 10pm with SSD, Mainstream and Rounds.

Cane Country Squares 40th Birthday Weekend continued on Saturday the 11th at Coronation Hall, 71 High St. Walkervale, Bundaberg. 

This is a much larger hall with air-conditioning, making the rest of the weekend dancing very comfortable. 1pm to 3pm included brackets for SSD and Mainstream with workshops. It was fantastic to see up to six squares on the floor during this session with up to 80 dancers attending over the weekend.

Matt, Nev and Steve were in fine form and the stage looked great.

The committee and other Cane Country members went all out to decorate this hall with balloons, masses of plants, new printed table cloths and the addition of a computer with our website, along side the TV with the digital photo history.  Later, a huge spread of sandwiches with home made biscuits and slices was laid out on individual plates with tea and coffee was available all afternoon.

Once again we enjoyed dancing with those from out of town, with some familiar faces, from the Gold Coast through to Rockhampton.

It was great to see our new SSD and Mainstream dancers enjoying themselves, even inspiring some to build there skills towards dancing at a State Convention.

The workshops were fun and challenging at times, moving in interesting formations with extended lines or same genders working together instead of boy / girl couples.

Our callers for the weekend was Steve Turner from WA, Nev McLachlan from the Sunshine Coast and our own caller, Matthew Mills. It was great to see many of our new club dancers experiencing a dance of this size for the first time. 

We all enjoyed the fun and challenge of different calling voices and styles and sharing the floor with so many others from out of town, many travelling from Brisbane. A good sized group came from Hervey Bay and a small bus load travelled from the Sunshine Coast. New dancers commented, how much they learnt from the feature callers and the experienced dancers from beyond Bundaberg.

After the cancellation of so many events all over Australia during the pandemic and missing the chance to run our own dance in 2020, this was a very special weekend for our club. To be able to celebrate 40 years for Cane Country Squares as an event gave us the opportunity to bring out memorabilia and create new items for future events. 

Fran made our new banner as a stage back drop, Sandy brought along old dance badges and ribbons from her parents collection and the square dancing dolls. Alan H provided the bulk of the plant collection used in Coronation Hall with a few from Jo R. Jo L got her sisters to run the kitchen with supper each night and sausage sizzle on Sunday. Jo K also helped in the kitchen and on the door with George for the whole weekend. 

Friday Night, 10th of March was held at the Kepnock Hall, 42 Totten Street in Kepnock, Bundaberg. This hall isn’t airconditioned so as expected, it was a little warm but that didn’t stop the floor being filled with enthusiastic, smiling dancers.

Most dressed up for the occasion with lots of traditional square dance attire, fancy petticoats and twirling skirts on the floor.

The callers ran brackets for SSD, Mainstream and Plus as a trio, in pairs and individually giving them a chance to dance too.

It was lovely to see Matt and Anita Round Dancing with Bev McLachlan Cueing.

This was such a great weekend with too much to cover in one post. With Rob and Jo R taking photos and videos all weekend, going through them is taking a little time. The follow up story covering the rest of the weekend should be online in the next day or two. Event photo and video galleries will take a few weeks so watch this space.

 APOLOGY. 

LEARNERS CLASS STARTS

TUESDAY 14TH MARCH

First come and try night is Tuesday 14th of March.

21st and 28th of March are also ‘Come and Try’ nights before the start of the 12 week program.

For more information visit our Learn to Dance page or phone Matthew on 0418 479 814