Episode 376 - palm24
2024-04-16
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake Simon Mackley
GuestsEman Vergara Robbie Hawkswell
Show notes
It’s PALM24 week, where Mel, Olly, TOC and Simon are joined by a crowd of listeners for a live recording of the pod. After a recap of the morning, Olly chatted with Eman, our on-the-ground PALM organiser, South Toowoomba RD and all-round-good-guy, while Mel interviewed Robbie Hawkswell, founding co-event director and video content creator extraordinaire. Simon was back at the helm of the annual quiz and TOC made a surprise announcement. And even though none of us saw her, somehow Rachel got hold of the mic…
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuests
Eman Vergara
Eman's parkrun story and the South Toowoomba event: arriving from Sydney in April 2018 and turning up to event number one, being welcomed by Robbie, building a house on the course, his international parkruns (Queenstown, Futakotamagawa in Tokyo, Boston, all three in Singapore), the family goal of ticking off Australia's capital cities, his Canberra marathon time, and daughter Juno's approaching solo parkrun debut. He also flags that the morning's run brief was interpreted in Auslan on Auslan Day.
Robbie Hawkswell
Robbie's parkrun journey from Gatton in July 2013, setting up Toowoomba/Queen's Park for four and a half years, the chartered-bus tourism trips of the early days, his 440 parkruns and 440 volunteer credits, his top three events, the post-parkrun video interviews he films with cameraman Brett, and what parkrun means to him, community, and South Toowoomba's habit of making sure no one leaves the finish funnel without being spoken to.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:00
Live recording of palm24 from Toowoomba after South Toowoomba parkrun: Lyndell Murray gives the acknowledgement of the Jagera, Giabal and Jarowair traditional owners, then Ollie Spake welcomes the room with co-hosts Melissa Ellis, Simon Mackley and TOC for the podcast's seventh Palm event.
The Channel 5 News crew starts at 3:32
Ollie calls the Channel 5 News Crew members who are physically at palm24 up to the microphone and each gives a thank-you: Sarah Jefferson ("Sarah from the West Side") thanks the 34 volunteers and the photographer who travelled from Western Australia; Tracey Wood ("Tracey in a tutu") thanks Robbie and Margie for South Toowoomba hosting and leads three cheers for the event's birthday; Lyndell Murray thanks the travelling visitors (from as far as Tasmania and WA), the other contributors and the listeners. Mel returns to the crew to name the full roster, the three present plus Marvellous Mark in the ACT, PK and Greta in South Australia, Dave Moss, and international contributors Johan and Alison.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 10:33
TOC delivers a compressed live-show news bulletin, noting that the format is truncated because they are recording on the day rather than on a Monday. He covers the launches (see the launches entry) and notes that the usual Dazza's slot is being skipped this week because the crowd is in an actual cafe.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 10:47"Where is the cake?"
TOC covers the launches inside his news bulletin: two missed last week (one in New Zealand, one in the USA) because there was no pod, and two launching in Australia today, Whyalla Foreshore, already run and done at 8.30 their time with 79 people at the first event, and Ridley Place Foreshore in Western Australia due to start in about twelve minutes. The anniversary side is South Toowoomba parkrun's sixth birthday, which the live show is sharing; Tracey Wood leads three cheers for it and Mel asks "Where was the cake?".
palm quiz — Brendan Peel starts at 40:09
Simon Mackley, the quiz master, runs the annual Palm quiz with four contestants: Brendan Peel for Victoria, Sonia for New South Wales, Dave (Messenger) for WA and Eman for "Quizland", each on a percussion instrument, with TOC on microphone duty and Sarah Jefferson scoring. Questions covered registered parkrunners named South, the four Australian compass-point events, Queensland's custodial event moving from Wacol to Spring Creek, a "who am I" that turned out to be Sarah Jefferson herself, a "where am I" answered as New Farm, the surname Toowoomba, Simon's verbal tic ("indeed"), the co-hosting rotation, and a five-point tiebreaker on the hosts' combined parkrun count (1361, Mel 429, Ollie 227, TOC 367, Simon 338). Brendan Peel won on nine, Dave second on three, Sonia third on one and a half, Eman fourth. One answer doubled as an era fact: Ollie's last episode as a regular host before Palm was 371.
Palm audience Q&A starts at 59:06
TOC opens the floor to the room, "one of the bits I usually enjoy each year". Greg asks Mel about going back to back in the AFL; Rex asks how long the podcast takes to put together each week, prompting Mel to walk through the whole production cycle (show notes from Sunday, the Consolidated Club Report collated with a spreadsheet Dave Messenger produces, Monday-night recording from about 7 until 9 or 9.30, three or four hours of post-production, reading every Dazza's post) and to appeal for a UK Channel 5 News Crew member. Ollie and TOC add what they value about the show. The last question, from Em, asks whether palm25 is going to be in Victoria, which sets up TOC's announcement that palm25 will be in New Zealand, with the date to be revealed shortly.
Sign-off starts at 1:09:35
Recorded live at palm24, the host wrapped up with 'well, that was fun, we're done', apologised for not mentioning Dazza, Rachel and the birthday boy, and thanked everyone for joining them. He gave the email and social contacts (Facebook and Instagram, noting they had given up on X), invited roving reports and messages, said they would be back on the airwaves after Palm once they worked out whether the recording had worked, and reported that the usual live recording method had failed almost immediately while the backup kept picking up sound. He closed with 'that is it for another Palm, that is it for another week', pointing people to the afternoon's event and thanking the room for coming.
Club Corner starts at 1:11:30
Rachel's post-outro Club Corner, coming to her from "Arrernte Country", devoted to Palm itself: the seven Palms to date, Shellharbour 2018, The Beaches (Newcastle, NSW) 2019, Mount Barker (Adelaide) 2020, Nambour (Sunshine Coast) 2021, Bellerive (Tasmania) 2022, UWA (WA) 2023 and South Toowoomba 2024, with 2025 planned for New Zealand, plus the standard Palm weekend format (Friday freedom run and dinner, Saturday parkrun and live recording, afternoon freedom run, dress-up party, Sunday third freedom run and farewells) and the run of dress-up themes.