After a bit of help with prompting from some of our friends and with a plan for a complicated day that never worked out we stated by heading down to Tecoma and parking. I am still sick and really at the end of the day, while I was feeling better in the morning, by the afternoon I realised I should really have spent the day at home.
After dropping off Kirsten’s new advertising board in Olinda we headed down to Tecoma to park. The No Maccas March was from Belgrave to Tecoma and we felt it was better to have the car at the far end. I think this turned out to be a good decision. I had not been involved in the previous rallies, but I brought my camera along and took some pics. As you can see from the start we walked past the proposed site.
From here we walked up the bike track beside the railway line to Belgrave, coming out at the base of the car park where the rally was to start. Here we met up with Sally and Jason and headed off down the road after waiting for the musicians and banner bearers who had started further down in Belgrave.
We then marched along the Burwood Highway. So as not to cause too much disruption to the traffic we started walking along the footpath. We only walked out onto the highway itself when there was enough space to do so. Near the Cameo Theater we bumped into Lior, Lylah and Kashet. So with much excitement from the children, they joined us.
Further along the road we used up one lane as the traffic was able to pass us. We passed some passive monks with no emotion showing on their faces. We now headed down to the Tecoma Primary School. When we had headed up to Belgrave we had seen the preparations when we walked past the school. Now we went into the car park where the stage was set up and listened to the speeches and music.
I went and got some sausages, vegie burgers and lemonade. The queue was long and the crowd patient and happy. I heard estimates of 2,500 to 3,000 people were there. The people selling the food were ecstatic at the attendance.
After this the kids played in the area for children to play and both Krysta and Teresa got their faced painted. We ended up there before talking to the gnomes and heading back to Andrew’s place.
My own view is that I am not really against multinational corporations. But what I do believe is that people should have control over the way that their local community is run and what it contains. People live in the The Dandenongs for a reason and it has its own unique charm. So if something comes to the mountains it has to fit in with the desires and expectations of the community. Otherwise the world would just be a bland place and Australia is already too bland a place. The core values of the community is one of alternative, nature life styles, good, healthy food and living. The core of The Dandenongs is nature and the National Parks. Things that make McDonalds out of place in the area.
I’ll leave off with this good video made some time before. The singing starts at about the 36 second mark.
Added: Here is the original Video with the Gnomes:
Added: Here is the video produced by the organisers after the event.