By Tania Phillips
He calls himself the accidental Town Crier but it’s no accident that the Southern Downs and Granite Belt’s Bob Townshend has taken out yet another national competition.
Competing against Town Criers from around Australia at the National titles in Maryborough earlier this month, Bob took out the Seniors section – Over 65s – impressing the judges once again in section that he has made his own in recent years. The competition had otherwise been dominated by Toowoomba competitor Kevin Howath who was named champion of champions, had the loudest cry and was second in the best cry.
“I’m the Senior Australian Champion of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Australian Town Criers,” he said.
“I’ve been a town crier now for 12 years and I’ve had quite a bit of success, this is the third time I’ve been the Senior Champion. I’ve been Best Dressed, I’ve had the best Cry. I’ve come away with something each time I’ve attended an annual championship. This is the 12th one I’ve been to, so I’ve been very luckily successful,” he joked.
Host town this year, Maryborough which hailed the event as a major success and perfectly suited to their heritage buildings, ran the competition in conjunction with their Mary Poppins festival with many of the town criers taking part in the festival as well.
For Bob, originally from Northern England, it is just one of the highlights of becoming a town crier – representing the region both at home – and in this case – away.
It’s something that he really enjoys but not something he really ever planned on doing.
“I always call myself the accidental town crier because 12 years or so ago when there was a steam train tootling around Queensland celebrating the State’s 150th birthday, the Warwick Tourist group at the time decided to re-enact the egg throwing incident when Billie Hughes (the PM) was attacked by a couple of locals who threw eggs at him,” he said.
“The lady who was in charge at the time said what we need is a town crier and everybody looked at me for some reason because I’m the only one who hasn’t got an accent you see,” he chuckled.
“So, they dressed me up as a bit of a Baron Hard-Up but we did it and we all enjoyed doing it and shortly there-after the city itself celebrated it’s 150th birthday and the then council decided to re-enact the very first council meeting. So they asked me to be town crier again. At that meeting, which was very fun, a gentleman who was the town crier at Toowoomba at the time said hey Bob you should be a member of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Town Criers.
“I said why? He said well we need the $40 subscription.”
Bob said though to be an official town crier you have to actual be an official town crier.
“So that I could join the association, the mayor and council elected to have me as the official town crier,” he said.
“About a few months later the Guild was having their annual championships, strangely enough in Maryborough where I’ve just been for this latest title, and I went up there not knowing anything about it and came third,” he said.
“I’ve been to it ever since.”
You can find Bob at all the major events across the region – including the upcoming Jumpers and Jazz in July.
