The third phase of the Festival of Australia, a multi-city showcase celebrating Australia’s education and premium food and beverage products, took place recently at JW Marriott Kolkata, introducing visitors to opportunities in higher studies as well as consumables from Down Under.
Over 1,000 students attended sessions with 18 Australian educational institutions and four partners over a day-long programme that also had the hotel’s kitchen team rustling up typical Aussie dishes for spot sampling. A counter sold Australian products available in Indian supermarkets — lentils, chickpeas, olive oils, salad dressings and honey.
Vik Singh of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.
“The event is aimed to celebrate Australia and all things Australia — our vibrant people, rich produce and culinary delights, world-class wine, innovative industries, and enduring friendships, powered by the Australian government’s Australia India Business Exchange programme,” announced Vik Singh, the trade and investment commissioner in South East Asia for AusTrade.
“This is the 10th city in India where we are running this event in the last six months. It brings together three flagship sectors — education, food and beverage, and tourism, arts and culture. India and Australia enjoy a strong partnership. We have had school and college students, and their parents come through the day; there was a masterclass and students had a taste of Aussie lambs and Lamingtons at live demos,” he told t2 in the evening.
There was a screen and touch panel, titled ‘Celebrating five years of Australia-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’, which showcased all that the consulate has done in the six years of its existence in Calcutta. Visitors had to touch any of the categories on the panel — technology, defence, education, tourism, clean energy, sports and so on.
There was also an exhibition of 15 panels, featuring aboriginal art using natural colours. Works of artists from Warlayirti, Papunya Tula, Mangarla and Martu tribes were curated by the National Museum of Australia to tell a story of contact with Europeans. These are the aboriginals whose land the railway track along the Canning Stock Route in Western Desert crossed, leading to conflict and struggles for survival.
Quiet farewell
The meet was to be the last engagement of consul general Hugh Boylan, who was slated to leave town in a few days. But his speech did not divulge that. “Hamara naam Shri Boylan,” he started, earning a round of applause. “Despite our cricket rivalry, Australia and India have been friends for a long time. In 2022, our countries signed the Australia-India Economic and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which has opened new doors for Australian and Indian businesses alike,” he said.
Australia, which has the highest per capita deployment of rooftop solar in the world, he pointed out, “would help deliver India’s ambition to install 10 million solar rooftops in the country”. “We will train 2,000 Indian solar technicians and installers,” he added.
An exhibition showcasing aboriginal art using natural colours at JW Marriott.
Education-related travel, Boylan said, was Australia’s second-largest export to India. “Under ECTA, Australia has guaranteed international students from India the right to stay and work in Australia after they finish their degrees and established a dedicated Work and Holiday programme for young Indians.”
He had another piece of news to share — Indian students can now access an Australian education experience in India itself. The University of Deakin and University of Wollongong have became the first foreign universities to establish campuses in India. “Earlier this month (June), the University of Western Australia became the first of Australia’s Group of Eight universities approved by the UGC to open campuses in India,” he said. UWA will open its first campus in Mumbai, followed by another in Chennai.
Md. Ghulam Rabbani, the minister for non-conventional and renewable energy sources, also spoke on the occasion.
Once the speeches were over, the organisers announced: “Sample our produce, taste our wine.” That the guests happily did, with the Talinga Park 2024 Moscato proving to be a major hit. The sweetness made many take it as a dessert wine. “But it’s not,” said deputy consul general Kevin Goh, clarifying that it was more of a low-alcohol sweet wine. “We don’t like it much but it does well in markets with a sweet palate,” he said, while confirming to guests who asked whether the wine was available in Calcutta. “The red Cabernet Merlot goes well with the Australian lamb we are serving in dum biryani,” Chef Bhaskar Chakraborty of JW Marriott Kolkata said. An Australian fish, Barramundi, swam into a Bengali dish — the Bhapa Machh Paturi. Australian almonds were used in Baby Spinach Kofta Curry.
Hardly anyone got a chance to say goodbye to Boylan, even if they got to know, as he had to keep the minister company all evening. “I did not want to turn the event into my farewell as there were too many important things to focus on,” the consul general later told t2, on being asked why he did not announce his impending departure. “I have spent more than four years in India, including at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi. I will miss a lot about the city, including kathi rolls and watching KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) at Eden Gardens!” he said of his one-year tenure.