Celebrating 60 years of Touch and Netball Carnival

Late last term, our Year 6 students interviewed two school teachers who have had a long association with bringing students to the Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival. In this article, we asked Mr Sweeney and Mr Hughes about why they bring students to the carnival and what some of their memories are of their time coming to the carnival. Written by Gigi K: Will and I interviewed a teacher from Canberra called Mr Sweeney. He has been coming to the Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival for over 25 years. The first school that he came to the carnival with was with Saint Clare of Assisi Primary School in South Canberra. He came each year for over 20 years, bringing many, many students to the carnival over this time. Then he moved to a new school a few years ago, Sacred Heart in the middle of Canberra. They never came until he introduced it to them. Now they come every year. They only bring about 1 or 2 teams, but they still have a great day. Mr Sweeney loves to see his city kids hang out with the country kids and see a different landscape like canola, animals, farms. He said one year it was so windy and the drought was so big that they had a massive dust storm and they kept having to stop the games and wait until it passed and wasn’t as harsh so they could keep playing. Mr Sweeney loves the atmosphere at the carnival and how everyone is expected to have a go but it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. Written by Will: Mr Sweeney has enjoyed bringing kids to the Boorowa Touch Netball Carnival for over 25 years. His first carnival was in the early 2000’s and he has brought over 200 kids to the carnival from Saint Clare’s in Canberra each year. This would equal more than 20 teams for touch and netball every year. He said that Saint Clare’s students, of which there are over 800 at the school, always enjoyed coming to the carnival because they could see the country atmosphere and to meet new students from different schools around the Archdiocese. Mr Sweeney loves to bring kids to the carnival so students can see the country and spend money at the canteen. He said that he loved to see students play touch and netball and see them working as a team and eating lots of food and lollies. He also enjoyed catching up with teachers from other schools that meet every year at the carnival. Mr Sweeney said he hears conversations by the kids weeks and weeks after carnival, a sure sign that the kids loved the carnival. Written by Billie BT: Archer and I interviewed Mr Hughes to find out what his experience has been in the Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival over the years. Mr Hughes, who was the principal at St Joseph's for 10 years, had a lot to do with the carnival. He helped mark the netball courts, set up the tents and answered millions of annoying questions each year. Mr Hughes discovered that if he helped clean out the toilets he could avoid all of the questions as no one wanted to come near him because of the smell. Mr Hughes’ favourite memory of the carnival was in the 2000’s when there was practically no grass because Boorowa was in drought. All the schools with white shirts would turn around so that they wouldn’t get dirt on their shirts. All the sausages were gritty and they had to keep respraying all the lines because the dirt that they were on kept blowing away. Written by Archer D: Mr Hughes was 10 years as principal at St Josephs, Boorowa, with his first year in 2004. He marked the netball courts, helped around doing general jobs and cleaned the toilets by pumping out the Port-a-Loos and cleaning them out. He said this was disgusting. When Mr Hughes moved to Mother Teresa Primary School in Canberra, he started bringing students from this school to the carnival. Mr Hughes remembers that all the schools that had white sport uniforms had brown uniforms at the end because it was all dusty. Mr Hughes remembers the carnival in the big drought because there was grit in the food because of all the wind blowing the dust around and it getting into the BBQ tents. Mr Hughes has brought three schools and their students to the carnival including: St Joseph’s, Boorowa, Saint Mary’s, Young, and Mother Teresa in Harrison, Canberra. Mr Hughes said that the students enjoy coming to the carnival because there is less supervision on the day because they are running around all day to get to games and the canteen and they get to meet new people. A reminder to all Boorowa residents that the 2025 Carnival is being held on Friday 24th October at the Boorowa Showground. Due to the traffic management arrangements, there will be changed traffic conditions in Boorowa on the day. This will mean some of the streets will be closed off to through traffic but local residents are permitted to go around the barricades to access their homes. We have requested NO PARKING IN DRIVEWAYS or on NATURE STRIPS. This will be primarily in the morning - from approximately 7:30am to 10:00am and then in the afternoon from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

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