Better late than never, introducing the King Island Monarchs <p style='text-align: center;] <p style='text-align: center;] <p style='text-align: left;]King Island is approximately 1000sq.km in size, lying in Bass Strait roughly halfway between Victoria and the north-western tip of Tasmania. It is currently part of the state of Tasmania, though this may not be the case for much longer. <p style='text-align: left;] <p style='text-align: left;]The population has steadily decreased in the past few decades to its current level of about 1600, less than half the Island's numbers in its heyday. This trend has got many of the locals concerned. The closing of the Grassy scheelite mine in 1990 was a major blow to the community which some thought they might not recover from but being a hardy lot they battled on. Then in 2012, just as things seemed to be looking up, the Island's only abattoir was shut down. Despite their pleas, there has been little assistance from the Tasmanian government and there is a general feeling across the Island that enough is enough and the time has come to take matters into their own hands. <p style='text-align: left;] <p style='text-align: left;]Leading the charge is John Mack 'the knife' jnr. Mack jnr has re-established the King Island Betterment Committee,originally founded back in the early 1970's byhis father, John 'big' Mack snr. The King Islanders are under no illusion that life would be any better under a Victorian government. The Betterment Committee's plan is to have King Island declared a territory with limited self-governance. Whilst Mack snr struggled to get the people to truly believe in his vision of independent rule, the success of Norfolk Island years later convinced him that his dream was possible. Now it's his son who has taken up the fight <p style='text-align: left;].
Good stuff Tylo. Next photo should be a photo of NicNat wearing a crown or something of the sort... photoshop anyone?
A few weeks ago the Monarchs headquarters at Grassy hosted the inaugural King Island FC Best & Fairest Award, to be known as The Royal Sceptre. Mack 'the knife' congratulated the boys on reaching the finals in their first season and gave a rousing speech urging the locals to get behind them in their push towards a premiership in 2015. He had plenty of advice for the coaches on positional moves before showing some moves of his own later in the evening.