For the latest information on coming events please call Everglades on (02) 4784 1938
COMING EVENTS AT EVERGLADES
Leura Gardens Festival 4-12 October, 2008
Everglades House & Garden participates as an associate garden in the Leura Gardens Festival, which has been running for over 40 years. Ten local gardens of great variety are on display, each with its own character and charm. Enjoy a spring garden experience among magnificent cool climate flowering trees, shrubs, bulbs etc. Proceeds are directed to the Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital for the purchase of specialised medical equipment.
Cost: $18 for all 10 gardens, $5 for individual gardens, children free. P: (02) 4784 1938. www.leuragardensfestival.com.au
PAST EVENTS AT EVERGLADES
Everglades Gardens hops into autumn with popular children’s Easter Celebration
Dig out those Easter bonnets and get the camera ready… 
Children of all ages are invited to descend upon the shady glens and terraces of the National Trust’s Everglades Gardens for ‘The Great Easter Celebration’ taking place Easter Sunday, 8 April 2007, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
There will be the usual horde of chocolate delights for the children to win by competing in three legged, potato sack and wheelbarrow races. They can also win treats by marching in the spectacular garden’s Great Easter Bonnet Parade.
A few pirates will be on hand to help to start the races and there will be face painting, egg decorating and Easter bonnet decoration among other activities throughout the busy day.
The Everglades Gardens Great Easter Celebration, now in its third year, is hailed as the Blue Mountains’ premier Easter event.
“The staff and volunteers at Everglades are delighted that so many people enjoy our Easter celebration,” said Everglades Manager, Harry Ostendorf. “It takes a lot of hard work and much help from many people to arrange it, but it’s a hoot watching the kids’ faces as they enjoy the races or have a laugh with the pirates and the face painter. It makes it all worthwhile.”
Families should arrive from 10am on and bring a beanie, straw hat or plastic pot to make an Easter bonnet, advises Ostendorf. There will also be a competition for the best bonnet made off the property.
The tea rooms will feature an all-day pancake brunch along with its famous sausage sizzle and hot-cross buns.
Your ticket includes all-day access to the garden. Cost: Family of four, $26, single adult $8 and children $6. Everglades House & Gardens is located at 37 Everglades Ave, Leura. Enquiries: 02 4784 1938.
For more information:
Kim Carter
National Trust Media Relations
02 9258 0131 or 0407 771 698
Harry Ostendorf
Everglades Manager
02 4784 1938
UNDER THE HAMMER: 
Everglades to hold Objects of Desire auction
Saturday February 10, 2007
A Hans Heysen watercolour, a 1920s beaded flapper dress and a limited edition lithograph by Pablo Picasso will be amongst the fabulous items up for the auction at Everglades. Organised by the Friends and Volunteers of Everglades, all funds raised by the auction will be dedicated to the care and restoration of the gardens.
First beneficiaries are the hundreds of rare, exotic and native trees at Everglades, many old enough to be wondering what happened to their telegram from the Queen. A Tree Maintenance and Propagation Programme will be established. The septuagenarian irrigation system will also receive a boost for its ongoing restoration and replacement with water conserving technologies.
To make it all possible, lithographs by Toulouse Lautrec and Pro Hart will be offered to potential buyers alongside silk pyjamas, an art deco maiden lamp, silver tea pot set, vintage port and model of the ship Endeavour.
Sculptor Philip Hay, ceramicist Peter Rushforth, glass blower Keith Rowe and painter Kerry Johns are amongst the contemporary artists who have donated works to help maintain the much-loved gardens.
The evening auction will be run by donor and well-known auctioneer Steven Archer on the Cherry Terrace of Everglades. It will be preceded by a champagne and swing jazz reception. The Objects of Desire will be on exhibition in Everglades house for the week prior to the auction.
Cost: $25, $40 per couple
SUNSET on the SILK ROAD
Saturday 25th February, 2006, 5.30pm-9pm
The sunset spectacular of multicultural dance with fire, veils, swords, drums, guitars and didjeridu will be hosted by Devi Mamak and Ghawazi Caravan in the outdoor theatre of Everglades overlooking the World Heritage Jamison Valley.
Come and enjoy the mesmerising sights and sounds of African, Egyptian, Moroccan, Turkish, Eastern European and indigenous Australian music and dance by artists of Sydney, Wollongong and the Blue Mountains.
The twilight show takes as its theme the Silk Road - both route and symbol of the trade in luxury goods that stretched from China to North Africa for two thousand years. The caravans ferried more than just goods; religions, philosophies, sciences, languages, arts, crafts, gene pools, music and dance were all ferried from culture to culture creating a diverse heritage that flowed out to Europe and the New World.
Founded six years ago, Ghawazi Caravan has become one of the Blue Mountains' finest examples of multicultural Australia and a highlight of many festivals and events. Audiences love the strength and elegance of the American Tribal Style (ATS) belly dance performed by Ghawazi as well as the gorgeous costumes.
Says founding director and troupe member Devi Mamak, "It is a contemporary dance form, which uses improvisational choreography, drawing technique from many countries, including the Middle East, India, Central Asia, North Africa and Spain. The costumes are similarly inspired."
At Everglades, Ghawazi will perform ATS improvised choreography as well as their breathtaking 'Clash of the Titans' and a new Tribal Fusion inspired by Spaghetti Westerns.
Renowned cabaret belly dancers Jrisi Jusakos and Kellie Harkin from the Hathor Dance Theatre will perform an Egyptian traditional Shamadan to modern pop followed by a fire dance. Look forward to the double veils and swords in their Ice Queen dance.
Fire, swords and veils will also add elemental drama to the belly dances of Urban Turban, Tribal Jewels and Zahgareet.
Local percussion and dance troupe, Hands, Heart & Feet will perform an original composition, centered around the dun dun drums from West Africa - weaving cross-cultural dance with dynamic and exciting rhythms.
Arabic drumming group Al Janoub and Didjeridu Dingo musician Lester Ives will be amongst the musicians accompanying the belly dancers and performing solo instrumentals. Les Smokin' Gitanes will play the songs of love, loss, dancing and parties beloved of the Romani (gypsies) of Eastern Europe.
Bring your picnic basket, rug and cushions. East-west refreshments available.
Wet weather alternative is Leura Golf Club. (No picnics at Leura Golf Club. Food and drink for sale.)
Adults $28, Conc. and National Trust members $22, Child $15
Ticket includes all-day access to Everglades
Bookings ph. 02 4784 1938
SNAKES ALIVE with Neville Burns
Easter weekend April Friday 14 - Monday 17, 2007
Meet and greet our snaky compatriots. Neville Burns, one of Australia’s foremost authorities on reptiles, will be running three sessions daily with Pythons, Death Adders, Blacks, Browns and Tiger Snakes. Learn how to live with them safely.
Everglades, 37 Everglades Ave, Leura. Ph. 4784 1938
www.evergladesgardens.info
THE GREAT EGG HUNT,
Easter Sunday April 16th, 2006
Dig out those Easter baskets. Children of all ages are invited to descend upon the shady glades and terraces of Everglades for the Great Easter Egg Hunt. There will be the usual horde of chocolate delights for the children to track down, and the Easter Bunny and his cousin the Easter Bilby will be bounding around the spectacular gardens with extra goodies for those who can catch them.
The “Greatest Egg Hunt in the Southern Hemisphere” will be followed by egg decorating and egg and spoon races. Everglades tea rooms will be serving hot cross buns along with their famous roast pumpkin soup and other autumn delights from 10am in the courtyard and house.
Hunts start at 10.30 and 12 noon.
Cost: $5 per child. Standard entry charges for adults.
Everglades, 37 Everglades Ave, Leura.
Enquiries: 4784 1938 http://www.everglades.org.au/
LANDSCAPE DRAWING & PAINTING AUTUMN SCHOOL 
Beginners to Advanced
Monday-Friday April 24 - 28, 2008
Well-known landscape artist and lecturer Tim Allen will hold an intensive drawing and mixed media workshop of five daily four-hour sessions, suitable for all levels of art students. Media range from charcoal and pencil to pastel, brush and ink. More advanced students may choose to work with paints. Students build up from quick sketches to finished works. Course participants are encouraged to find their own ways of observing and interpreting the many colours, forms and details of the gardens. One-to-one tuition is combined with demonstrations, discussions of artists’ work and a review of the day’s drawings. Each session includes a break for tea and cake served by Everglades volunteers. Students have all-day access to the gardens. A barbecue lunch completes the week.
Cost: $195
Limited numbers, bookings essential: Phone 4784 1938,
37 Everglades Ave, Leura. http://www.everglades.org.au/
WINTER MAGIC QUEST
Sunday June 25th, 2006
10 – 12.30: Treasure Quest
12.30- 3pm: Games & paint-in, world music, food stalls
On Sunday June 25, the natural enchantment of Everglades will be dressed in an extra layer of magic when the National Trust property stages its most spectacular event, the Winter Magic Quest.
Merlin, King Arthur and the Longest Knights of the Year will be handing out passports for questers setting out through the lands which appear fleetingly at Everglades for the Winter Solstice. On the trail of clues and treasure, the questers will gather lost property from the Witches Parking Lot in the Forest of Eyes and meet a chilly reception from the Snow Queen amongst giant ice stalagmites on the Terrace of Eternal Winter . There’ll be pillage and plank-walking with the Pirates of Ancient Oceania and harvest in the Garden of Edible Delights.
The morning quest will be followed by world music and dance, children’s entertainment, a paint-in with the Society of Mountain Artists and a barbecue feast from Everglades food fair.
This project is supported by the Blue Mountains Cultural Partnership Program 2006
Tickets all ages $8
Family Ticket (Up to 2 adults & 2 children) $25
Everglades, 37 Everglades Ave, Leura.
Enquiries: 4784 1938 http://www.everglades.org.au/
