October 14th, 2022Just Sayin’…

SO, the Big Rainbow is coming to Daylesford.
I kinda thought we would win. I mean the other towns were a little bit,
well, not really on my gaydar. But then, maybe they are LGBTIQA+.
I have been to Katherine in the Northern Territory and I can’t say it glittered. Not
at the time anyway. Broome in Western Australia has an awesome outdoor cinema
and amazing sunsets, but not really any rainbows as such. Hay in New South Wales?
Never been there, so not sure.
Anyway, we have won, although if you check out the Big Rainbow Project at
www.bigrainbowproject.com.au, there’s nothing about Daylesford winning. Still just
lists the four finalists and tells people to stay tuned. Strange.
The Big Rainbow is a Tinder initiative, that’s a dating website. It was launched at
a hackathon in Hatch Labs in 2012 and is the world’s most popular app for meeting
new people. It’s also pretty widely thought of as a website where you can hook up for
casual sex. I don’t know, I have been married a very long time and don’t know about
sex any more.
Anyway, I never thought I would be writing about Hepburn Shire Council and
Tinder in the same sentence. But there you go. (I do know some people have talked
about the council and another word for sex in relation to The Rex. Bit rude.)
Anyway, about 16,000 people around Australia voted, with most for the Big
Rainbow to be placed in Daylesford. The council are saying that was akin to public
consultation. Oddly, there was no way to say you didn’t want the Big Rainbow. In
reply to a query from myself, a council spokesperson said if someone didn’t want the
Big Rainbow in Daylesford, they just had to vote for another town. I asked what if
they didn’t want to foist it onto any town. No answer. Hmmm.
So, now that we have all decided we want the Big Rainbow here, we have to
decide where it goes. There are lots of ideas on Facebook. Someone said on top of The
Rex because it needs all the good luck possible. Someone said to link the BP servo
with the units opposite. They need luck too. Someone else said upside down at the
Skate Park. That’s quite smart. Someone else said Creswick. That’s just dumb.
Despite it just being announced on Wednesday, the council has already chosen
four possible spots. (I must have missed that bit of public consultation.) So we can
now choose, through the council’s Participate Hepburn website, to have it at Lake
Daylesford, the Skate Park, Victoria Park or the Lost Children’s Reserve. Not the one
at Musk, the one on the road to Ballarat opposite the Mill Markets.
They are apparently the best spots because, being council-owned, they don’t need
planning permits. And those permits can be pesky things sometimes. Damn you, The
Rex, costing more than $1 million to renovate.
But I am not sure. Lake Daylesford is a pristine, natural area and if you got rid of
the geese because they are not indigenous to the region, surely a big rainbow sculpture
is not quite right. The Skate Park doesn’t have a lot of parking and is pretty regularly
vandalised from what I hear. Victoria Park? Perfect for ChillOut but a little isolated
the rest of the year. Lost Children’s Reserve? Surely that is a monument for the three
young children who died who we apparently can never forget. (No hate mail please.)
But never fear. Mayor Drylie said the council would never choose not to listen to
its ratepayers and those four sites are not the only ones on the table, although they
are the only ones listed at Participate Hepburn. So keep those ideas coming. Maybe
it needs to be on wheels and move around the region? Who says big things have to be
stationary? It could be Australia’s first mobile big thing. Just sayin’…