Cherries from the finest cherry growing town on the planet!

These gems are from Newton Brother's Orchard, home of the Deanmill footballing legend Harvey Giblett and his team of cherry growing fanatics.

Tatum Larsen is a genius. She is the 2006 Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival Queen. She and her mob of Kings and Queens raised over $30,000.00 for the festival .
The money accumulated is also a credit to the Manjimup community because it was they that gave that the money be raised.
Tatum is sitting in a chair that was auctioned at the Long Table Lunch by this man, Dean Allen, legendary auctioneer.

Wow, can these boys spit!

Here they are again, Paul Omodei snr, West Australian legendary south wester and parliamentarian and Rob Palmer, from tv's Better Doors and Windows, or something with a similar name.
Look closely, you can see the avocado stones flying.
[Pic by Gail Dunns.]

More Spitting Pics

These two blokes are not spitting cherry pips, no, they are throwing avocado stones as far as they can using their mouths.
The bloke on the left, Paul Omodei snr, is the Leader of the Opposition in the WA State Parliament and when he gets fired up he can spit a mile.
The bloke on the right, Rob Palmer, is a larger than life character from a tv show, Better Fences and Pillow Cases, or something with a similar name.
Rob had a bigger mouth and more wind and spat his avocado stone almost as far as he spat his cherry pip.
He almost won the pip spitting competetion too, but if you look below you'll see he didn't.
Paul had a bad day and wished he was facing another kind of adversity, like a bloke he hated whose job he wanted.
It was all good fun and nobody laughed harder than the contestants. which made it bloody hard to get the stone in the air.
[Pic from Lyn Neal]

The Great Spit Off

The 2006 winner of the GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championships is Michael Robinson, the reigning New Zealand Champ.
It all happened in Manjin Park, Manjimup, West Australia, on a stinking hot day full of cherries and laughter.
That's Michael on the right, watching Rob Palmer, a tv dude from better Homes and Licorice Allsorts, or another tv show with a similar name.
Rob spat well and damn near took the title but was pipped at the spit by Michael's last saliver toss.
The local champion, Paul Omodei jnr, did not spit well on the day and was embarrassed by his inability into the strong wind.
He did, however, beat all other locals and won himself a trip to New Zealand for next year's spit off.
Paul will probably face Michael in Cromwell, New Zealand's cherry growing capital.
[Picture taken by Lyn Neal]

This could be yours

The Pip Spitting trophy

Press Release

For immediate relief on 11/12/2006

GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championship

This Saturday (Dec 16th) Manjimup - West Australia's finest cherry growing town - will host a disgusting event featuring human saliva and the remains of prime cherries.

Up to 4000 people will cram Manjin Park in the centre of town and watch men and women gather as much wind as they can in attempts to propel cherry pips beyond the pathetic 12 metre record and attempt to smash the record of the blow-hard from Minnesota (a measly 28kilometres.) (Sorry, metres.)

The highlight of the morning’s spitting will be the GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting finals, which Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival MC Jon Doust said would “herald the beginning of another great Trans-Tasman rivalry”.

“Last Sunday in Cromwell, New Zealand, home of the south island’s best spitters, the big men huffed and puffed and their champion will now attempt to make our local champion look like a dribbler,” said Mr Doust.

Another highlight will be the annual Politician Dummy Spit, with cherry pips flying in all directions but mainly at members of opposing parties.

The 2005 winner, Fremantle Mayor, Peter Tagliaferri, will be in town to defend his dummy against all comers including Leader of the Opposition Paul Omodei and local Shire President Wade De Campo.

Mr Tagliaferri said he was prepared to spit in the eye of any challengers.

To be or not to be? These folk chose to be

This mob is the line-up of Kings and Queens for the 2006 Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival.
At the launch they revealed themselves as more than competent speakers and a couple even took over and began standup comedy routines.
The audience loved them, their parents loved them, their confidence soared and all was accomplished with not a drop of local wine spilt.
And there was plenty of that, local wine, because Manjimup is set in a fine wine producing belt.
There was also fine marron, fine fetta, fine food all round, fine conversation and a couple of deals were made in the south eastern corner of the marquee.
All in all, the young folk stole the show and, apart from the old bloke squatting in the middle, all in the photo have an excellent future.

Cherry Pip Spitting Trophy Revealed

The big news from Manjimup is the Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championship Trophy.
Made by two local artisans - Lui Arcaro and Bert Angus - the trophy stands almost 10 metres from the ground up.
All right, not that high, but high enough to make folk stop, look, stay a while, and marvel at the intricacies, the delicacies and the sheer audacity of the craftmanship.
Almost 200 people gathered for the unveiling, in Peter McGinty's cherry orchard, a few ks out of Manjimup on Graphite Road, where he laid on the very best marron the south west can offer.
The Cherry Kings and Queens were also presented for the first time and two Lui Arcaro jarrah items were auctioned with proceeds to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Lui reckons the Flying Doc Service is in much needs of funds and he himself is in much need of the service.
I visited him on the afternoon of the day before and I reckoned he looked in pretty good shape and there was no need to build an airstrip at the back of his house in readiness for the Docs on an emergency call.
While all this was going on people took liberties with wine from the barrels of the Manjimup Wine Association.
As for the trophy itself, that's it above.
(The hands belong to Pam Bodsworth, local identity, local hustler and bustler, local organiser of everything from an icecream to the Southern Aurora. )
Look at it!
Revell in it's comlexity.
Want to own it.
Hang on, even if you win, it'll never be yours, but you will get a replica.
It is proposed that the original be on permanent display in the Manjimup Tourist Bureau.
It will be costly.
Insurance will be needed.
Security is a necessity.
The mystique surrounding the trophy grows by the day and already it has been said that the owner, simply by being in it's presence, has been curred of a life-threatening complaint.
Others living nearby have reported sudden rises in share-holdings, the return of lost loved ones and crops appearing where there has been no rain.
It looks like a miracle!

Not another Cherry Festival?

The bloke on the left is the Leader of the Opposition Liberal Party in the Western Australian State Parliament. His name is Paul Omodei and he can spit. So can his son, Paul Jnr. Paul Jnr is the local champion and he's spitting to make the international scene.

Yes, another!

Yes, there is one in the Brda region of Slovenia. In June.
Check it out on this web site: http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/0410/slovenia_by_the_sea.html
Apparently Brda means rolling hills and the place is west of the Soca River.
Look it up on a map.
Then go there, spit cherry pips and represent Europe in the Great GlobeVista Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival World Championsips of Cherry Pip Spitting.
Ok, laugh, but it will happen.
In Brda, according to Katreen Hardt, the New York writer and actress who wrote the copy on the above web site:"Brda’s annual Cherry Festival is, in short, a weekend celebration in the charming town of Dobrovo, with a parade, including Italian groups from the Friuli region, and the sale of homemade cherry jams and pies in praise of the season. It is the pleasant Mediterranean climate, and the regions close proximity to the Adriatic Sea (on a clear day you can see Aquilea and Grado), that enables Brda grape growers to produce high quality wines to be found on the menu of any high-end restaurant in Ljubljana."
Wow.
Reads just like Manjimup, with it's Italian sausage makers, Greek and Macedonian clubs and its high quality wines.
The major exceptions being that the river is the Warren, the sea is the Indian Ocean (it's a big shire, the shire of Manjimup, runs all the way to the coast) and from a hill you can see Bridgetown, the Blues Music capital of the West.

Big Launch for Cherry Pip Spitting Comp

The annual Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival has been launched in West Australia's deep south west.
OK, there were no cherries, but there were blossoms, not much, because we left the launch a bit late in the season, but there were cherries, lovely cheeky little green buds - and hundreds of them.
Which means this year's crop with be a bumper, all other things working climatically in favour.
Among the big announcements: the New Zealand Central Otago town of Cromwell will send us the New Zealand Cherry Stone Spitting Champion.
This is no idle threat.
Them New Zealanders can spit. Expecially those raised in the high country on fresh fruit and veg.
The Cromwell Promotions Group is organising the Big Spit on the south island and they only have two requirements for entry: the spitter has a current valid passport and is ready to leave on a jet plane.
Why?
Because the Manjimup spit-off is the very next week: December 16th.
And when in Manjimup there will be no idle spitting.
The pips will fly to determine the winner of the GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championship.
Yes, it's another TransTasman rivalry and it all begin in Manjimup: Big Timber Country, Big Caulie Country and Big Broccoli Country.
What's more, I have been in contact with folk in the town of Ficksburg, in South Africa's Eastern Free State, home of a 39 year old cherry festival, about an even bigger spit-off next year. Ficksburg is nestled at the foot of Imperani Mountain and on the banks of the Caledon River, right up against the border with Lesotho. (Goodle it and check it out.)
Who would have thought the simple and primitive art of chery pit spitting could reach such a wide audience.
Saliva has long been thought of as having healing properties, in the future, it could bring nations together.