A debut hosting by the Queensland Independent Cat Council at Marburg (near Ipswich, Queensland) took us out to an extremely pleasant, rural setting, where all events took place at Marburg Estate, with its Victorian Heritage–listed homestead building, complete with fabulous cedar paneling and resident ghost.

A Special General Meeting was convened for Friday afternoon, to admit the Feline Control Council of Queensland (FCCQ) Inc. (whose application for affiliation was submitted in February) as a new member body with voting rights at Mondays Annual General Meeting. This was a significant Annual General Meeting. The agenda contained many proposals for change to the old (existing) constitution, as well as a proposed new "overhaul" constitution. Add to that 33 years worth of by–laws to be slotted into the appropriate place and there was, inevitably, a long meeting. Ultimately, the proposed new constitution was not accepted, so the amendments to the existing prevailed. There were no changes of position among the office–bearers, but Lesley Morgan Blyth was reappointed as Yearbook Editor.

However, the AGM was not all about the constitution. "Skeletal deformities (formerly a withholding fault) was relocated to Disqualification in the standards book; the term ’and white’ was reserved for bicolours or vans of breeds where no differentiation of amount of white is made in the standard; and Rex and hairless breeds (with no points for colour) were now to be exhibited as Agouti, Agouti and White, Non–Agouti, and Non–Agouti and White. Mating of patched to pointed was accepted, so bicolour colourpoints became legitimate. Smoke points were accepted in all breeds that have both smoke and pointed patterns and it was no longer a penalty for apricot, red or cream cats to have freckles. An important set of motions which addressed problematic Persian–Exotic skull structure and Dm colours, as well as the silver series, was allowed in Persian–Exotic, British and Scottish breeds was passed. In Abyssinians, a bump on the nose became officially ’undesirable’ and cinnamon and fawn were accepted as Tonkinese colours. Golden (in breeds in which it is recognised) was allowed in colours other than black. The name of the Bombay as it is bred within affiliates was changed to ’Australian Bombay’, in order to avoid confusion with the US–style, original breed.

Another most important issue was the unanimous agreement to the Queensland Independent Cat Council’s proposals that ACF take actions to address the south–east Asian pet trade problems that are of such concern to us all. This topic has been taken to the World Cat Congress and, in April 2007, action was taken to assist ACF and CCCA in its approaches to the Australian Government.

At the show, the major winners were Best Allbreed Cat (and Supreme Exhibit) was ACF AoE Gold CCCAGC, Sap. DGC Vonderbren Sumthing Special (blue van Persian); Best Allbreed Kitten was Creswell Tally Ho (cream Burmese); and Best Allbreed Neuter was Kachelle Sno Chivelle (Foreign White). As some had attended the World Cat Congress and New Zealand Cat Fancy National the week before, the judging line–up featured a large number of overseas judges, namely Pam DelaBar (United States), Edith–Mary Smith (Canada), Kaai Du Plessis (South Africa), Eric Reijers (Czech Republic), and Penny Bydlinski (United Kingdom).

Finally, two more DM winners emerged; Yendor Boronia (black Oriental who was bred by Margaret Sharpe and owned by J & H Slape and R Crowley) was awarded her title for the achievements of her ACF National Best–in–show–winning offspring and a grand old man (unfortunately no longer with us but whose offspring keep his name alive), Chiton Don Carlos (bred by Helen Ferres and owned by Liz and Scoot Andresen) became the first Siamese male to claim the title.