THERE has been a last minute changing of the guards for the Bonnie Wingham Scottish Festival.
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President of Clan MacRae Society of Australia and New Zealand, Allan McRae has officially stepped down as Chieftain of this year's festival after sustaining an injury.
Stepping in to the role is Andrew Macrae, a retired builder and a proud member of the Clan Macrae.
We asked Andrew for a bio so you could get to know him better.
I was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and I grew up in Queensland from age six before moving to New South Wales at 21.
Whilst I apprenticed as a joiner/machinist/glazier in Queensland, I have also worked as a joinery shop teacher, Work Cover inspector and general foreman.
In the mid 1960s I went to Papua New Guinea for work building schools and government infrastructure around the country in remote areas where often the only other non-indigenous person would be the local priest.
Learning pidgin was essential to being able to communicate with workers.
I found the time there very rewarding and interesting due to air travel into remote areas where pigs and livestock had to be removed from a runway before landing and short runways with mountains surrounding made for exhilarating approaches and departures.
After early retirement I needed something to do to fill all my spare time so I became a Volunteer in Policing at Toronto Police Station for 15 years.
I, like many of my age, did National Service and I helped establish the National Serviceman Association here in NSW (as one of the 14 founding members) as well as sub-branches in Gosford and West Lake Macquarie and I am currently the president of the West Lake Macquarie branch of the Nashos.
Some of the activities I have enjoyed in my "leisure time" over the years have included breeding canaries and finches, flying ultralight aircraft, sailing Hartley TS16' and wood turning (I enjoy making wooden pens). I hold an amateur radio licence and was a founding member of the NSW Corps of Marines, a living history group that covers from 1788 through to 1840s and a member of the 42nd HRH.
The Clan MacRae Society of Australia and New Zealand will have a display of early historic Scottish and MacRae items on display as well as a series of MacRae/McRae photographs with information in Central Park on Saturday.
All MacRaes/McRaes and family members have been invited to head the street parade which starts in Bent Street and then moves to Central Park for the Opening Ceremony, Highland Games and Pipe Bands as well as markets.