A VISIT TO THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK SPECTACULAR.....
For Christmas our girls and their families gave us tickets to the Australian Outback Spectacular, so whilst in Brisbane for Steve's birthday we decided that we could take the opportunity to have a date night out and go and enjoy this wonderful Christmas present...
We spent the Friday at Chloe's getting a few jobs done, and then I packed our gear as our grandchildren were keen for us to pick them up from school. Being Max's first week at school, we were keen to see him there also...
We picked them up and headed up to Underwood Park for them for their Friday afternoon play-date with friends. Sarah met us there and we enjoyed afternoon tea with her and several of her friends...
We headed back to Sarah's around 5pm to have a shower and get ready to head down towards the Gold Coast for our big night out...
Willow was keen to use my phone and take some photos of us all dressed up ready for our night out, so we humored her and gave her my phone so she could snap these photos of us...
We arrived there 45 minutes early. We were told to be there at least half an hour early, and with traffice being the way it is in Brissie, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to arrive in case there were delays on the motor way.
The stadium holds around 1000 people and even with Covid they are once again allowed to have a full house. However tonight there were only about 600 guests for the show....
We had to line up for a bit before proceeding into the shop area. We had great seats and entered the Stadium through Door B which was reflected by the Straw hat everyone received when entering. If you entered the Stadium by Door A, you had a blue band around your hat... Door B, required a red band around your hat.
Once in the bar area, we ordered a couple of drinks to enjoy before we were seated in our seats for the show...
We were then shown to our seats... The show included dinner, so we were not surprised to find that we were sitting behind semi tables with a great view to the area and our entree was already set in front of us when we sat down. Our ticket included a three course meal plus drinks... Great value for a great night out...
The show started right on 7.30pm and right from the start it captivated us all. It was magnificent...
The show at the moment is called "Heartland" which is a touching and relevant story about life on the land of a family working on a cattle station through severe drought. This heartwarming take of husband and wife, Reg and Marge, brings joy as they show the generosity, warmth and resilience of the community as they supported each other through hardship and the happy times. Their touching story resonated with us and they delved into the real life struggles Aussie farmers face, and then drew us in to rejoice with them as the community's courage, bravery and generosity helped them overcome the stunning yet unforgiving life in the outback..
The show was powered by incredible technology which actually spins, turns and transports you into the Australian bush, planting you in a world of dust, beauty, drought, rain, hardship and triumph.
There were amazing displays of animal handling
The show ran for two hours with 26 different scenes... There was quite a spectacular start to the show with a mesmerized adrenaline rush for the audience as we watched the skills of the horses and their talented riders as they put on and incredible show full of colour, sound and movement....
The next scene was quite a spectacular welcome to country and we saw the sun fad over the red earth before climbing into a black sky with star twinkling and then we see the scatter of dolphins, revealing a majestic whale closely followed by an Eagle, which symbolished the formation of our original custodians' language...
We then headed into the bush where Reg spent the night under the stars in his swag before Marge finds him and sees him concealing a letter. The bank is closing in.... Will they loose the station????
The story then depicts the generosity of the community as neighbours arrive and rally around them during tough times and then we were introduced to BAZZA who was the eccentric publican and chef...
More animals were introduced as the Muster scene was played out, with horses, stockmen, dogs, quad bikes and helicopters were all bought out into the area to round up the cattle...
Whilst round up the cattle Jimmy comes across a magnificent Black Stallion which seems to have an incredible bond with him...
Whilst we were watching this take place we were served with our main meal for the evening, which consisted of a beautifully cooked piece of rump steak, served with mashed potato, roasted pumpkin and green beans sitting in the most delicious red wine jus...
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| Our main meal... |
We then experience what it is like for the musters as they camp around the camp fire for the evening..
Bazza is there to feed them all in his mobile kitchen. In the quiet of the evening Jimmy sneaks off to do a spot of fishing and is quite disappointed that Sarah misses his big catch which is given to an eagle that flies in. Jimmy is a little disappointed that his fish disappears before Brad makes an appearance boasting about his huge fish.
The story then takes us to the following morning when we see how technology is used on the station with the helicopter and quad bikes rounding up all the cattle...
We are then treated to more amazing technology as we head to the stockyards to see the cattle rounded up and loaded into the trucks.. This scene also has Brown throwing his bravado around to impress Sarah and he challenges Jimmy to break out a steer, with Jimmy being far quicker than Brad.
Time to celebrate after all the hard work.. the next scene sees both Reg and Marge thanking their neighbours for their help on the muster and then the heart warming generousity continues when Bazza shouts them to drinks and food...
Time for a good old Pub Shindig...
This was also the time for us to get served our desert....
Beautiful chocolate mouse tart... The beer and softdrink had been flowing throughout the evening also, which waiters and waitresses constantly walking around filling our glasses...
In the 15th Scene Jimmy breaks in the wild stallion and we get to witness the connection between him and the horse and then Jimmy finally declares his love for Sarah when she sings a beautiful version of the song "True Colours".
As the harsh realities of life on the land are hitting home, the bank clerk pays a visit and encounters a stoic Marge and Reg...
Finally in Scene 20 the rain comes and we see more brilliant use of the technology as it projects lush green grass on the barren area...
We then see Jimmy and Sarah rejoice as the rain finally falls from the sky and this prompts Jimmy to muster up the courage to ask Reg for his daughter Sarah's hand in marriage...
From here Scene 22 is "Get me to the Church on Time"and we see the big day has arrived. Jimmy asks his new stallion Diamond to be his best man... and we then get to witness the wedding where Jimmy and Sarah seal their love with a beautiful rendition of "I Choose You".
From the wedding the sounds of "True Blue" echoed through the arena encompassing the essence of what it is to be a 'true blue' Aussie, and then the arena came alive with a spectacular finale to celebrate the stunning, harsh, yet ever beautiful Australian Outback..
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