The highly successful Festival of Spring held in Kempsey for 10 years from 1955 and was largely due to the efforts of Bill Flanigan.
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Born in Murwillumbah in 1894, Bill began a long career in the Postmaster-General's Department in the Tweed River area in 1908 as a 14-year-old telegraph messenger.
After the Great War broke out, Bill enlisted in the Australian Army Postal Corps and was attached to the Australian 11th Brigade Headquarters in France when the German Captain Baron von Richtofen's personal effects were brought in.
Known as the Red Baron, Richtofen was killed when his red Fokker triplane was shot down near Australian lines in April 1918.
Bill was able to secure some parts from the plane which are now on display in the Kempsey Museum.
Returning to Australia, Bill worked in various country towns before being appointed Postmaster at Ryde in 1940.
In 1942 Bill moved to Kempsey where he had been appointed District Postal Inspector in 1942. He worked here until his retirement in 1954, after which he was to indulge his love of gardening by founding the Kempsey and Macleay Horticultural Society in 1955.
He was Kempsey's first judge accredited to the Royal Horticultural Society and judged gardens and flowers from one end of the country to the other.
The first Festival of Spring was held in Kempsey in September 1955 and was conceived by Bill Flanigan and his committee as a floral festival to which business people could contribute by dressing their windows in a floral theme.
Prizes were awarded for the best garden and path displays, and also for the best floral window display.
It was said that never in the history of Kempsey was such a glory of flowers presented to the public view and that no shop in any section of the town was without some show of floral decoration.
The first Festival's official opening was at 3pm on Thursday, September 29 in the Victoria Theatre, Belgrave Street, and was followed by a concert and radio show hosted by Taubman's Paints in the evening.
A procession of floral floats formed up in Smith Street at 11am on Monday, October 3 and proceeded along Belgrave Street, Elbow, Tozer, Marsh and Sea streets to the Showground.
During the week-long Festival, the Kempsey Jockey Club held race meetings, and there was golf, bowls and tennis.
King's bus services ran tours of the 150-plus gardens on display and there was also a bus trip to Daisy Plains on the Carrai Plateau.
There were school displays and sports, motorcycle aerobatics, marching girls and cycle races.
The Festival of Spring followed more or less the same format over 10 years with the 11th and last one being held in 1965.
The last Festival featured sailing contests near the traffic bridge, art exhibitions in the Mayfair Theatre, and woodchop and chainsaw competitions on the Verge Street Oval.
Bill Flanigan was also involved in football management and donated what was to become the Flanigan Cup when Group 3 formed.
He became foundation president of the North Coast Division and was also president of the Kempsey Bowling Club.
Bill was elected to Kempsey Municipal Council in 1953 and served three full terms until he retired in 1962.
Bill Flanagan passed away on April 6, 1977.