The Granny Smith Festival is an annual festival held in Eastwood, New South Wales , a suburb of Sydney , Australia. It began in 1985 and is now the largest annual event of its type in Sydney's Northern District , attracting over 80,000 people each year. The festival is held on and around Eastwood Oval on the third Saturday of October to commemorate 19th-century pioneer Maria Ann "Granny" Smith , credited with producing the Granny Smith apple and celebrated for providing the Ryde - Hunters Hill area with prosperity. The festival begins at 9:00 am and concludes at 8:30 pm.
25-580: The highlights are the Grand Parade down Rowe Street and the fireworks display. There are also stalls, community events, live entertainment, and rides. It is a festival tradition that the New South Wales Mounted Police lead the Grand Parade. The Granny Smith Festival in 2007 was of particular significance, in that it became a major campaign venue for the Australian federal election, 2007 . For
50-522: A number of other local politicians, along with hundreds of volunteers representing numerous political parties and interest groups, attended the Festival, with a large contingent of media crew following their campaign trails. The 2008 Granny Smith Festival was of important significance with the Ryde by-election being held on the same day, Saturday October 18. This was triggered by the resignation of John Watkins who
75-623: A two-month sweeping operation along the Gwydir and Namoi Rivers that culminated in the Waterloo Creek massacre , where his mounted troopers shot dead at least 50 Gamilaraay people. This operation coincided with numerous other massacres of Aboriginals in the area perpetrated by groups of European colonists, of which the Myall Creek massacre is the best known. An inquiry into Nunn's campaign exonerated him of any wrong doing and he continued to command
100-649: The 80th Regiment became Commandant of the Mounted Police. Settlers from New South Wales at this time was spreading into regions that are now known as Port Phillip and the Liverpool Plains . Resistance by the Gamilaraay people to colonisation in the Liverpool Plains area prompted the colonial government of New South Wales to send a large force led by Nunn to suppress this opposition. In early 1838, Nunn conducted
125-603: The Colonial Office approved the idea and agreed to finance the troopers for the mounted force who were to be recruited from the British Army in Australia . The colonial government of New South Wales provided funding for the cost of the horses and equipment. Colonel William Stewart of the 3rd Regiment of Foot organised the first detachment by selecting 28 soldiers from his force. This first detachment of mounted troopers, which
150-842: The Upper Hunter River above Maitland , west to the Great Dividing Range , towards Wollombi . The Wonnarua were bounded to the north by the Geawegal people, to the north–east by the Worimi peoples, to the south east by the Awabakal people, to the south by the Darkinung and to the west by the Wiradjuri people. The Wonnarua also had trade and ceremonial links with the Kamilaroi people . The Wonnarua, at
175-685: The Upper Hunter Valley , New South Wales , Australia . Their creation spirit is Baiami , also known as Koin , the creator of all things and the Keeper of the Valley . The origin of the Wonnarua language is unclear; however, linguists group closely related dialects together under the description "language of the Hunter River/Lake Macquarie" (HRLM). That term denotes the geographical location of
200-800: The Governor's guard, was stationed in Sydney at the Belmore Barracks (located on the present site of the Central railway station ). There were three country divisions based at Bathurst, Goulburn and Maitland. Lieutenant Lachlan Macalister, who was also a prominent pastoral capitalist in the colony, was placed in charge of the Argyle Division and later commanded the Bathurst Division. Capturing outlaw gangs of escaped convicts, commonly referred to as bushrangers ,
225-407: The Mounted Police as they expanded their operations in the south of the colony. By the mid 1840s, the Mounted Police consisted of around 150 troopers in five divisions distributed among 35 stations ranging from Muswellbrook in the north, Portland Bay in the south and Wellington in the west. The much cheaper Border Police had by this time usurped most of the functions of the Mounted Police and
250-406: The Mounted Police conducted raids of local Aboriginal camps and by early 1827, resistance in the area ended. Lieutenant Lowe was brought before a court to face charges of extrajudicial murder, but was acquitted and reinstated to his position. By 1829, the force was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass . There were four areas of operation, the main detachment of the unit, incorporating
275-445: The Mounted Police from the 40th Regiment of Foot , ordered multiple executions of Aboriginal prisoners as part of the campaign. Reinforcements of mounted infantry under Ensign Archibald Robertson from the 57th Regiment of Foot were required from Sydney and Newcastle throughout the latter half of 1826 in campaigns by the Mounted Police against the local Wonnarua people. With the aid of armed settlers such as Robert Scott of Glendon,
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#1732854727736300-625: The beginning of contact with whites, are estimated to have numbered around 500. The Gringai were a clan of the Worimi, whose traditional lands are in the Dungog area. On behalf of the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People, Scott Franks and Anor put in a native title claim on 19 August 2013. The document claimed rights over an area of roughly 9,500 square kilometres (3,700 sq mi), embracing
325-683: The catchment zone within the Great Dividing Range , the Liverpool Range , and the major rivers coming out of the Barringtons , under Yango . The claim included Singleton , Muswellbrook , Dungog , Maitland , and the shire council lands of the Upper Hunter. The claim was registered in January 2015 and referred to the Federal Court to deliberate over the claim and to make a determination. However, it
350-528: The closely related dialects rather than the name of the language group. The area extends from north of the Hawkesbury – MacDonald River (HMR) language and south of the Lower North Coast language (LNC). Exact geographical locations of the language groups are, at this stage, speculative. Their traditional territory, estimated to comprise an area extending over 2,000 square miles (5,200 km ), spreads from
375-472: The construction of the present Central railway station, to a temporary base at Moore Park, and then on to the Bourke Street Police complex at Redfern in 1907. Horses used by the mounted Police generally include a variety of breeds, including heavier horses such as warm bloods, draft horses and Clydesdale crosses. Historically horses were donated to the section, and ex race horses have been included in
400-546: The cost of maintaining the force was deemed too expensive for the colonial government to run. In 1850 its paramilitary function was ceased and the force took on the more civilian role that it has in the present day. The frontier duties of repressing Aboriginal resistance was largely taken on by the Native Police . For over a century the New South Wales Mounted Police were a key part of policing, as horses were
425-584: The donations. It can take up to two years to train a mount. Duties include traffic and crowd management, riot control, patrols, and ceremonial protocol duties (including taking part in the Queen's Jubiliee celebrations in London ). Currently the NSW Mounted Police has a strength of 36 officers and around 38 mounts. Nine full-time grooms are employed to assist with the care of the horses and running and maintenance of
450-431: The first time in the Festival's 22-year history, it was officially opened by the (then) local Member of parliament , Prime minister John Howard . There were speculations that his appearance was largely due to the emergence of a serious challenge towards not just his Coalition government, but indeed his very own parliamentary seat of Bennelong , from high-profile ALP candidate Maxine McKew . Apart from Howard and McKew,
475-572: The main form of transport. The unit was formed three years before the London Mounted Police and 38 years prior to the 1873 formation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . By the 1900s the Mounted Police had grown to a strength of over 800 personnel and more than 900 horses. Most stations throughout the state had mounted units attached to them. It was around this time that they unit was moved from Belmore Barracks, to allow for
500-530: The mounted division of the colonial military force in the colony of New South Wales until 1850, when it took on a more civilian role. The NSW Mounted Police Unit is the oldest continuous mounted group in the world. After the Bathurst War between European colonists and the Wiradjuri concluded in 1824, it was deemed necessary that a mounted infantry division be formed in colony of New South Wales . In 1825,
525-404: The stable complex. The Mounted Police have recently been trialling iPads to give them access to the same information the non-mounted police have. Wonnarua The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa , are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as
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#1732854727736550-650: Was based at Bathurst , became active on 4 November 1825. The second detachment was formed in February 1826 and was based at Wallis Plains which is now called Maitland . While the Bathurst division were quickly utilised to capture escaped convicts, the Wallis Plains unit were deployed in the suppression of Aboriginal resistance along the newly colonised areas of the Hunter Valley . Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe, who volunteered for
575-687: Was the MP for Ryde since 1995. An estimated 280 stores were set up in the 2008 event. New South Wales Mounted Police The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force . Founded by Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from the 3rd Regiment of Foot , stationed in NSW at the time, to protect travellers, recaptured escaped convicts and suppress Indigenous resistance to colonisation . The force remained
600-579: Was the main employment of the Mounted Police at this time. The Bushranging Act of 1830 which enabled the arrest without warrant of anyone suspected of being a criminal aided the force in their duties. The Mounted Police absorbed the Mounted Orderlies (established as a replacement for the Governor's Body Guard of Light Horse ) in 1836. This unit existed as a separate component of the mounted police until at least 1860. In 1837, Major James Winniett Nunn of
625-470: Was ultimately discontinued and removed from the register of native title claims on 2 March 2020. The discontinuance appears to have been the result of disputes with other Aboriginal people who claimed native title in the area but in a different way and these disputes led to an independent anthropologist, Dr Lee Sackett, being appointed by the Court to prepare a report to resolve the different views of native title in
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