The highlight of the Blackheath Rhododendron Festival has always been the crowning of the Festival Queen, as she was called initially. Until 1969 the Queen was selected as the woman who raised the most money for the festival. From 1969 the Queen was drawn by lot. At some point in time the title changed to Princess, and that remained until 2019 when the first Royal Family was appointed (Bruce, Michelle and Isobella McKenzie).

The following table is a list of festival royal crownings, compiled by Larraine Home (née Hynes, 1962 Festival Queen) for the 60th anniversary in 2013 and since maintained by Linda McLaughlin.

The Friends of The Hall are planning an Honour Board and would like there to be no mistakes, so have requested that anyone who can assist with the following get in touch through the Contact form:

1. 1956 – B King – what does B stand for? According to the 2006 Revue script, it’s Betty (this may be the result of someone in 2006 remembering or it may have been assumed). Larraine Home believes she was a daughter of the then station master at Mount Victoria if that jogs anyone’s memory.
2. 1997 – who was it?
3. Is anybody in the wrong year?
4. Is anybody’s name incorrectly spelled?
5. Are there any names that should, for honour board purposes, be in a different form (e.g. Susan rather than Sue… etc)?
6. Does anyone have certain knowledge about why “Queen” was changed to “Princess” and when (sometime in the 1990s)?

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