Flower power
It looks like an artist’s canvas. Lashings of vivid colour, shape and texture are splashed all over the sunrise as the early morning light awakens and highlights every petal.
The air is full of freshness and springtime excitement, matched in the surrounding streets by an explosion of scented hues and buzzing bees attracted to the spectacle.
Welcome to Toowoomba in spring and the annual Carnival of Flowers. The journey here from Brisbane winds 125km through the fertile fruit and vegetable plains of the Lockyer Valley before climbing steeply up the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range straight into this warm-hearted, very pretty and historic place. Known as the Garden City, Toowoomba perches 700m above sea level–the jewel in the crown of the Darling Downs region and surrounding valleys. With an estimated 160,000 residents, this is Australia’s second-largest inland city, after Canberra. It has 150 public parks that, together with private gardens, can feature flowers across 1100ha.
This year, the Carnival of Flowers celebrates 71 years of flowers and festivities. It
