Furry friend: Volunteer Dot Cations with an inmate at Geelong Animal Welfare Society.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
The main suppliers of a new Geelong Seafood Feast have withdrawn their involvement a week before the event, they told the Independent this week.
Organisers had promoted the event as replacing Queenscliff’s former seafood festival, which raised tens of thousands of dollars for Royal Children’s Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal.
The Queenscliff event’s website said it had become Geelong Seafood Feast and moved to Deakin University’s waterfront campus for 2011.
Spokesmen for the event’s fish suppliers did not want to be identified but said they would only participate if proceeds went to the Good Friday Appeal. But executive director Christine Unsworth said the appeal had not registered Geelong Seafood Feast.
“The event is not endorsed by the Good Friday Appeal. If you have an interest in, or concerns about the event, I suggest you contact Consumer Affairs or Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.”
The website claimed support from Australian Fisheries Management Authority but a spokesman said it had not been contacted this year. The festival website also said over 10,000 families would attend Geelong Seafood Feast and consume 6.5 tonnes of seafood.
Former Queenscliff festival general manager Grant Talbot said he was not involved in the Geelong event.
“I’m retired,” he said.
Consumer Affairs Victoria registered the event as a charity fundraiser this week, listing Barwon Health Foundation as its beneficiary.
The event’s public officer, James Rae, of Sunbury, said the feast would raise money for Royal Children’s Hospital even though Barwon Health Foundation was listed as a beneficiary.
“That’s an irrelevant issue. I can’t see why the Good Friday appeal knocked us back since we raised half a million dollars for them.
“I’m happy with the bona fides of the seafood feast and I wouldn’t be involved if I wasn’t.”
