Why believe the weather forecast for next week when the bureau can’t get tomorrow right?
That’s a common, possibly unfair, refrain among the many critics of the Bureau of Meteorology, especially in Geelong where the weather’s less predictable than a night at Home House.
But it’s also advice rarely actioned, with most locals planning their lives and events dutifully in line with the bureau’s official prognostications.
Case in point: last weekend’s dire forecasts of rain and flooding “off the charts” in Victorian history. Everything from cricket matches to Dennis Walter’s bayside carols were either postponed or cancelled ahead of Geelong’s Great Flood of 2017.
But then it turned out to be a damp squib. Rainy, yes, Armageddon, no.
So hat’s off, or maybe that should be brollies stowed, to the organisers of Geelong West’s Carols in West Park.
The team was one of the few that stuck to its guns and went ahead with Sunday’s event despite the warnings after postponing the weekend before due to lightning threats.
And guess what? The carols were dry as a bone.
Take that, doomsayers!
However, the fallout from last weekend’s flooding fizzer continued this week, with more unfulfilled predictions causing the postponement of yet another local event.
Empire Touring announced it had rescheduled its Twilight at the Track concert from this weekend to 18 March due to concerns over likely damp conditions at host venue Geelong Racing Club.
The company said the car park staging area was already a little damp from last week’s rain, so forecasts of further downpours this week made the event too risky to go ahead. Soft ground is no place to erect heavy staging gear, after all.
But guess what again? The downpours failed to materialise.
At this rate it’s arguable we’d be better off with a Ouija board than the BoM!
They say dead men tell no tales.
Well, that’s not the case at Geelong’s Eastern Cemetery where scripts from the crypts are delighting crowds seeking a morbid day out.
To explain, a group of local entertainers has been organising guided tours of prominent gravesites, with actors at each recounting the lives and times of the various inhabitants.
Rather than a grave disservice to the deceased, the tours have been somewhat of an, err, underground hit, with 1500 attending so far.
Now the tours have extended to Queenscliff Cemetery, with the first, scheduled for January, selling out over a month in advance.
Talk about an easy event to organise – the weather might be unpredictable but at least the neighbours won’t complain!
