Fine turnout to Charlie Brown’s Family Fun Day

The spirit of the late former soldier, gold-fossicker, strawberry-grower and bush recluse Charlie Brown of Waratah Bay would surely be truly chuffed by the fine turnout to the Family Fun Day named and run in his honour on Easter Saturday, March 30, 2024.

Arranged by a team of Waratah Bay residents and Corner Inlet district supporters headed by Joan Newman and Lindsay Williams, this year’s entirely free Charlie Brown event was attended by a happy crowd of around 200 people of all ages.

Mild and overcast autumnal weather in the morning brightened to calm sunshine during the afternoon, providing perfect conditions for sand constructions to begin with, and dancing and old-fashioned races and field games and later on.

Local and visiting families alike began to assemble on the beach opposite the Gale Street and Moongana Street intersection before 9 am, in time for the start of Lindsay’s special sandcastle competition at 9.30 am.

After a fiercely contested scramble for Easter eggs hidden along the edge of the sand dunes, the participants in both activities made their way up to the Village Green where they were greeted by lively folk tunes performed by Blind Cobbler’s Thumb.

Charlie Brown was famous for the amount and the quality of the strawberries he grew each year around his camp on Cooks Creek, just along the beach from where the Waratah Bay Caravan Park is located, and for giving most of the harvest away.

Joan has continued this tradition and after the live music concert was over, some five or six large boxes’ worth of freshly hulled and sliced strawberries were served with whipped cream to everyone present.

Fish Creek Scouts cooked and sold about 100 burgers and 350 sausages, and all with each purchaser’s choice of fried onions, crisp coleslaw, and tomato or spicy sauce.

The proceeds from the Scouts’ barbecue, together with the sale of dozens of tins of fizzy drink and bottles of water, added up to more than $1200 towards the Fish Creek Football Netball Club’s clubrooms rebuild fund.

Waratah Bay residents donated plenty of great prizes for the 2024 Charlie Brown’s raffle, including decorated balloons filled with Easter eggs, hampers of groceries and fresh fruit, and a basket of gardening essentials like gloves, secateurs and seeds.

Steady raffle ticket sales throughout the course of the Family Fun Day generated just over $800, which was also contributed to the new Fishy clubrooms project.

A feature of Charlie Brown’s Family Fun Day is the friendly rivalry between the “Waratites” who are local residents, property owners and their families and friends, and the “Parkers” who are holidaymakers staying at the Waratah Caravan Park.

The two teams fight for the Charlie Brown Shield, competing for points in a series of events, including the Doggy Derby followed by egg-and-spoon races, three-legged races, sack races, sprints and relays, and the tug-of-war.

This year, the winner of the sixteenth, or was it the seventeenth? annual Charlie Brown Shield was the Waratites team, which only narrowly defeated the Parkers in the final moments of both the women’s and men’s tugs-of-war to triumph by a handful of points.

Sincere thanks go to Joan and Lindsay for their hard work and sponsorship, and to all the volunteers who band together to make Charlie Brown’s Family Fun Day such an enjoyable event.

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