As Winter ends and Spring begins, it is not uncommon to see an increase in the activity by the various species of wildlife that inhabit our local environment and anyone who was in the vicinity of Brennan Park on the first day of September may very well have seen over two thousand Lady Beetles lined up along the sea wall.
Featured image(above): Line up behind me – Julieanne’s super-sized Lady Beetle at the head of the line
Okay, so they weren’t live Lady Beetles, but were all the result of painstaking efforts by many enthusiasts of the Bribie Rocks craze and were all painted to resemble Lady Beetles which were placed on the wall to the south of the Bongaree Jetty as a celebration of Spring. The “Lady Beetle” rocks were placed there by both excited children and adults, stretching for over one hundred metres and attracting the attention of all those who came by. Little Miranda Mills (see front cover), has recently moved to the area with her family and was really excited to place some rocks in the line-up.
103 metres of Lady Beetles
From when the rock painting phenomenon began, initially as a pastime for young children, an incredible number of older children and adults have become totally addicted to painting and hiding the rocks. I spoke to one family who was busy lining up their Lady Beetles and they explained that they had come over from Morayfield to be a part of the event. ‘We spend a fair bit of time painting up rocks and usually come over to Bribie Island at night to hide them. We have brought 850 “Lady Beetle” rocks this morning,’ they told me.
Those who contributed to the line up of Lady Beetles are all members of the Facebook group “Bribie Rocks” and whilst some had brought fifty or sixty to add to the line others had been busy painting up hundreds of rocks. A rock painting enthusiast by the name of Julieanne brought along one super-sized beetle rock which had been given to her six years ago by her grandchildren and, whilst that one was just for people to see, she had painted another fifty rocks to add to the line.
Alayne Charles Stuart with the sample bag that her sister made
The event was scheduled to run from 10 am until 2 pm but Bribie Rocks cofounders Alayne Charles Stuart and Kaye Harper Smith were forced to call an end to proceedings at Noon due to some eager children beginning to remove some of the rocks from the line. During the morning, co-founder Kaye was left with no doubt that the event was definitely meant to be when a real live Lady Beetle landed on her leg.
Julieanne’s little dog Isabella was dressed appropriately for the occasion
For those who wanted to take a few of the rocks as a souvenir, Alayne’s sister Vicki Day had made small sample bags which were given out on the day and I have been told that someone has donated material for Vicki to make more. There is no doubt that all the children and adults who were a part of the Bribie Rocks “Celebration of Spring” thoroughly enjoyed the event and, although nothing has been announced by Alayne or Kaye, I reckon that there will be many who want the fun “Lady Beetle Rock Line” to be held again next year.
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