POSTED: 18 APRIL 2011

Destination: NSW Southern Highlands

A call to arms for Mary Poppins fans

Head to Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands on Saturday 7 May and you could find yourself part of history when an attempt will be made that afternoon to create a new world record for the most number of people gathering with opened umbrellas to form a gigantic mosaic of the world’s most famous nanny, Mary Poppins.

It was in Bowral in the early 1900s that teenager Helen Lyndon Goff made up bedtime stories to tell to her younger sisters after the premature death of their father, amongst her tales being the adventures of a no-nonsense nanny.

And now it’s another local teenager, Melissa McShane, who’s sparked community interest in a Mary Poppins statue in Bowral. The “Welcome Home Mary Poppins” record attempt is part of promotion and fund-raising for that statue, and will be witnessed by representatives of The Guinness Book of Records.

The mosaic will be formed on Bowral’s famous Bradman Oval.

Organisers, the Southern Highlands Youth Arts Council, hope to comprehensively smash the current Mary Poppins mosaic record set by 1026 people in Serbia in 2009, and are inviting all Mary Poppins fans to join them.

Their planned bronze Mary Poppins statue will be sited in Bowral’s Glebe Park, just a block away from where Helen Lyndon Goff lived and adjacent to Bowral Oval.

You can register to take part in the mosaic by visiting www.shyac.org.au, by phoning (02) 4801 0622 — or just by turning up on 7 May with your most colourful umbrella.

And after the mosaic everyone’s invited to an open-air screening of the Disney 1964 Mary Poppins musical, and a fireworks show.

An artist's impression of the Mary Poppins living mosaic on Bowral's Bradman Oval.