- Design features macadamia branches from Gold Coast Hinterland
- Baton relay will put spotlight on GC2018 and region's sustainability
- Queen's message to be written on spinifex grass paper from the Outback
It's a small piece of Queensland that will now traverse the world ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
When the designers of the GC2018 Queen's Baton were looking for materials with which to shape the baton they sought out a local wood turners group in the Gold Coast Hinterland for advice on the region's best timber.
Long before it became a world famous tourist destination, the heavily timbered mountains behind the coastal strip attracted a different kind of visitor – timber cutters looking to harvest the huge hardwood and cedar trees that had grown tall and thick in the rich volcanic soils.
But the Queen's Baton designers were not looking for that kind of wood and they certainly didn't want to chop down a tree.
They wanted something different, something special and something indigenous to the region.
Brisbane company Designworks met with members of the Gold Coast Woodturners at Mudgeeraba who suggested macadamia was native to the nearby Hinterland.
It had been spread across the region by indigenous mobs regularly pushing the trees' nuts (seeds) into the ground to secure another generation of macadamias and food.
Although the commercialisation of the popular table nut was done in Hawaii, many Australians still refer to macadamias as “Queensland nuts”.
Designworks principal Alex Wall said a network of messages went out from the woodturners that led to the discovery a fallen old macadamia tree near Advancetown in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
“It was a race to get the timber dry enough so we could work on it to produce the Baton,” Wall said.
Local timber is just one part of what makes this version of the Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton so unique.
Sustainability is a core message of the Games. That also is reflected in the Baton.
Plastic picked up by tractor-pulled sand filters that clean the city's beaches every morning was recycled and hardened.
It forms the other half of the Baton, separated by a metal spine engraved with the names of every Commonwealth nation, in the order in which they host the GC2018 Queen's Baton Relay.
The Baton, similar to an enlarged eye of a needle, has constantly changing neon lighting pulsing around the inside of the loop design and a see-through compartment on the side which will contain the Queen's message, written on paper made from the Australian desert plant, spinifex grass.
It also contains a GPS device which will allow 24/7 internet tracking of the Baton on its worldwide journey.
Wall said the distinctive loop shape came from meetings with local indigenous groups.
“When indigenous people come together they often meet in circles,” Wall said.
“[At one meeting with locals] someone did a little painting that was a loop=shaped and that became part of our initial sketching.”
The designers said they were also inspired by the “boundless energy” of the Gold Coast and believe the “bold and beautiful” Baton reflects the “people, place and spirit of the Gold Coast”.
“It's got the natural environment as well as the bold energy of the Gold Coast people,” Wall said.
“Our immersion into the Gold Coast revealed a city rich in contrasts and full of optimism – if you can do it anywhere, you can do it here.”
The Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) will begin at Buckingham Palace on Commonwealth Day, Monday, March 13, 2017, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will place her message to the Commonwealth inside the GC2018 Baton.
The Baton will then travel 230,000km over 388 days through 69 Commonwealth nations on its journey to Australia and eventually to the Gold Coast for the Games' Opening Ceremony where the Queen's message will be read.
The relay route goes first to Africa, then the Caribbean and Canada, through the United Kingdom and onto to India and Malaysia and Singapore before a swing through Oceania and New Zealand arriving in Australia on December 25, 2017.
For more information of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games™:
https://www.gc2018.com/
For more information on holidays on the Gold Coast go to:
http://teq.queensland.com/destinations/gold-coast
http://www.visitgoldcoast.com/
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