On Walkabout At: The 2008 Bendigo Easter Parade – Part 2

Prior Posting: 2008 Bendigo Easter Parade – Part 1

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With about half of the 2008 Bendigo Easter Parade completed my wife and I continued to sit back and enjoy the remainder of the parade. Sun Loong the highlight of the parade may have passed but there was still plenty more things to see such as the Scouts of Australia:

For those that don’t know, in Australia there is no Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts because they are both combined into one organization called Scouts.   Following the scouts was the Lions Club which just like last year’s parade, this would be the only time the Stars & Stripes would make an appearance during the parade:

Next up was a Bendigo skate board club:

Shortly after the skaters the next marchers were from the Falun Dafa:

As well as the Falun Gong:

The Falun Gong marchers included some incredibly beautifully dressed women in Chinese attire:

They also had a group fan dancers that were quite skilled and put on a good show:

These people meditating though was just boring to watch:

I would be more impressed if they were meditating while doing a handstand or something.  Of course the Falun Gong had Chinese drummers as well:

When the Falun Gong procession passed it reminded me of another group that is persecuted by the Chinese government that did not march in this year’s parade, the Tibetan Monks.   Last year the Tibetan Buddhist monks marched in the parade and I’m curious if the current crackdown of Tibetans in China had anything to do with it?

Anyway the Falun Gong marchers were quite good and were followed by a few more marchers such as this local Bendigo floor hockey team:

The Central Deborah Gold Mine also put a float together for the parade:

A word of advice for anyone visiting Bendigo, I highly recommend taking a trip to check out this interesting gold mine in Bendigo.  Toward the end of the parade we got to see another person dressed up as an animal:

At least I knew why this person was dressed up as an animal because it was part of a group of Humane Society  marchers.  Finally the end of the parade featured an Australian Defence Force vehicle called a Bushmaster:

The Bushmaster is manufactured by the THALES corporation in Bendigo which is a major employer in the city.  Then right behind the Bushmaster and the very last marchers in the parade were soldiers from the Australian Defence Force:

Overall the parade was still fun to go and see this year, but last year’s parade my wife and I felt was better.  Last year we believe had better floats and more of them.  Heck the gay and transsexual groups didn’t even have a float this year like they did last year.   What’s a parade in Australia without gays and transsexuals?  Anyway if anyone is in Victoria during the Easter holiday it is a great day out to see the parade and tour around one of my favorite cities in all of Australia, Bendigo.