This silent 1953 home movie brings the Carnival of Flowers in Toowoomba to life. It bursts with colour – lavish floats, a lively floral parade and crowds packing the showground. The annual springtime tradition had been conceived only four years earlier to bring colour to the streets and promote postwar economic activity in the Toowoomba region. The footage is a vibrant record of the carnival in its early years and offers a nostalgic look at Queensland community spirit in full bloom during the 1950s.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.