Today, 31st October, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of The CSIRO Parkes Observatory, iconified in the 2000 Rob Sitch film The Dish.
Public Open Days were held to celebrate this on the weekend of 8-9 October, 2011, culminating in a grand opera concert, which was the brainchild of soprano Helen Barnett.
Two thousand people attended Bellini to Broadway, a wonderful evening of great operatic music, including US Consul-General Niels Marquardt, who read out a congratulatory letter from NASA, and Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
The orchestra featured was our own regional Macquarie Philharmonia, conducted by Mark Shiell.