Anglesea turns into penguin paradise

ANGLESEA Main Beach turned into a penguin paradise on Saturday when the Anglesea Indoor Market hosted more than 50 locals and their families for the annual Penguin Parade.

Ran for the third time annually, the Penguin Parade event saw a large group of community members fill up penguin moulds and craft them out of sand to stand tall across the beach.

The tradition was started three years ago during the pandemic by nine-year-old Anglesea local Willow Trickett, who started making sand penguins and putting kind messages in the sand to cheer locals up during the tough time.

Willow’s mother Mandy Trickett said the 2023 mini-event far exceeded expectations, with more than 190 penguins being built compared to 101 last year.

“My nine-year-old daughter Willow started making the penguins during the pandemic and then it evolved to inviting other families down to the beach to take part and come along to build them,” Trickett said.

“We had an absolutely fantastic time and we lost count of the number of families who joined us.

“We had some penguins sculpted by hand, a few with hair and a very cool igloo.

“Beakage as we have termed it, was a challenge but replaced by cuttlefish, stick and stone beaks and we think they looked great.

“It was fantastic family fun time with lots of smiling faces.”

Nine-year-old Willow is already making plans for next year’s Penguin Parade and said that the team will need a lot more moulds to accommodate for more locals and their families in 2024.

Willow also hopes to make the event an all-day extravaganza rather than just having it as a two-hour timeslot in the future.