The Queen's Baton Run March 3 & 4 2006

It seems like only yesterday when Geelong turned on a huge party for the for the Olympic Torch Run on its way to the Sydney Olympic Games, but it was six years ago, and now its time to celebrate the Queen's Baton visiting our city on its way to the 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony at the MCG.

The Commonwealth Games will be one of the major highlights of 2006 and Geelong plays a big role, not only do we have the Baton Relay weaving its way through the district we have Commonwealth Games events in town, with Basketball being played at the Arena and a huge 'Geelong Live Sites' being set up in Steampacket Gardens for the length of the Games.

The Queen's baton will travel through the Geelong region to a huge civic reception at Eastern Beach on Friday March 3rd. The baton will make its journey from Frankston where it will cross the bay and visit Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Torquay and Bells Beach before heading into the Geelong City Area

Several community leaders and the odd celebrity will carry the baton around our region including Billy Brownless, Lee Troop and Nicky Buckly.

Saturday the baton will leave Geelong and head to Warnambool, where it will pass Bannockburn, Inverleigh and Colac.

The Queen handed over the baton on the in March of 2005 and between that time and the when she is handed it again in the MCG in March 2006 it will have traveled some 180,000 kilometers and visited every member of the Commonwealth, some 71 countries and done a 50 day lap of Australia.

The baton is rich in tradition, it was first ran during the 1958 games in Cardiff, Wales. The Melbourne baton is an amazing piece of high tech wizardry, made of gold and magnesium the baton has GPS capabilities, web connections and a web cam so people can track its progress all over the globe.

Be sure to visit Eastern Beach on Friday the 3rd of March to be part of this historic day.