What a great day! If you ever wanted to see what 446 gNOmes look like here it is.
This crowd is over 100 times bigger than the customers seated in the Tecoma McDonald’s at the same time. Although we only just fell short of the world record (we needed 479) it was a fantastic day and again showed that our community is united in their opposition to a greedy corporation trying to buy its way into our community and our home.
We definitely set an Australian record, but we will have to wait until gNOmeageddon 2015 to break the world record.
Thanks to our wonderful community who despite the nearly arctic weather conditions “gnome’s up” for a great family fun day.

Confirmation was received last night that the No McDonalds Community have unanimously decided to forward all proceeds made from tomorrows ‘gNOme auction’ to the CFA Upwey and CFA Belgrave.

Professional Garden Restorations have also generously donated their services as a raffle prize. The package includes two of your own fully qualified horticulturists/gnomes for one day in your garden. Up to 4 cubic metres of green waste removal and a 20 kg bag of fertilizer. Tickets can be purchased for $2 each or 3 for $5.

Beyond this all gorgeous gNOmes in attendance will have the opportunity to go home with a prize of their own.
Generous community members and local businesses have donated a number of items that will be raffled off after the world record attempt. Each ‘gNOme’ that successfully meets the requirements of the Guinness World standard of ‘gNOme attire’ will be issued with a number and the chance to win a fantastic prize.

Newly appointed Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson has created a storm on social media by advocating that McDonald’s have the human right to property in Tecoma. Confirmed by Fairfax today, Commissioner Wilson came to Tecoma last Saturday to see “what the fuss was about” What most are now regarding as poor judgement and a juvenile attempt to demonises the biggest grassroots democracy campaign in Australia, Wilson made no attempt to contact anyone associated with the campaign to get a balanced understanding.

Fortunately campaign spokesperson Garry Muratore managed to make direct contact and explained how McDonald’s had used bullying and intimidation to obtain their “right” and either ignored or lied about the groundswell of opposition they had in establishing the store in Tecoma.

When we spoke to Garry this afternoon he said “Tim and I had a decent conversation but he made it obvious to me he was advocating corporate rights over an entire community. When asked directly about the bullying and intimidation we had received, like McDonald’s he simply ignored those facts”

Wilson’s twitter account has been slammed by a storm of criticism as did comments on reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/248uwk/commissioner_champions_tecoma_mcdonalds_human/

Despite an opportunity to simply say “I’ve now heard both sides to the story” it appears Wilson preferred to dig a deeper hole for himself by “expressing surprise that Fairfax Media considered it a story.”

Oh Tim, don’t give up your day job. Oh wait, that is your day job.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/commissioner-champions-tecoma-mcdonalds-human-rights-20140429-zr12q.html