The Human Rights Torch will cross the border and continue to blaze its way up the eastern seaboard of Australia this week.
Having arrived in Grafton, New South Wales in time for the popular northern rivers town's annual Jacaranda Festival, and then continued on to Lismore for a rousing ceremony there, the torch is now set to cross the border to invigorate Queensland on the importance of putting human rights on the agenda in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics.
There will be a ceremony and relay in the pretty rural town of Toowoomba on November 1, followed by an official welcome to Queensland in Brisbane November 3.
Ambassador for the Human Rights Torch in Queensland, Katrina Robertson said the Torch offered an opportunity to draw attention to the many human rights concerns occurring in China today.
"The Olympics has always been an ideal opportunity to expose human rights violations in the host country," she said. "Now more than ever in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics we need to shout louder and longer than ever before to stop the terrible violation of human rights in China."
Ms Robertson was dubbed the strongest woman in the world in 1997, when at age 37 she won the Women's World Super Heavyweight Powerlifting Championship in South Africa, and broke three world records.
Apart from the recent revelations about organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, Ms Robertson said she held a number of reservations about a lack of transparency and accountability in China and the present conditions in which Chinese people are forced to live.
The Torch will be run through Brisbane on Saturday November 3 from 1pm, and will culminate in speeches and performances in the Suncorp Piazza.
Katie Noonan, lead singer of rock band George, opera singer, Maggie Noonan and indigenous choir, Songlines will perform as part of the ceremony.
On Sunday November 4, the Human Rights Torch will then travel north for relays and ceremonies the full length of the Sunshine Coast starting from Caloundra at 8.30 am and continuing through Mooloolaba, Coolum and Hastings Street, Noosa to finish with free a concert on Noosa's Lions Park stage at 3pm.
The Concert will present a number of locals including Barry Charles, Lindsay Pollack and a member of the Burmese Community.
Noosa Councillor, Frank Wilkie, will be running with the Torch on the Noosa leg of the relay. A former athlete, Cr Wilkie says he will be supporting the event because he thinks it is important to raise awareness of human rights abuses occurring in a country that is to host the Olympic Games.
"It's not a question of politicising the Olympics, it's a question of whether the world is at a moral cross roads when they can award the Olympic Games to a country that imprisons, tortures and kills its citizens for their beliefs," Cr Wilkie said. Former radio personality and now independent candidate for the Federal seat of Fisher, Caroline Hutchinson, has offered to MC the welcoming ceremony at Mooloolaba which will occur on the beachfront at 10.30am. Ms Hutchinson said Australia is a lucky country but that does not mean Australians should become complacent.
"I think because we come from such a lucky country, it becomes easy to turn a blind eye to other human beings around the world," Ms Hutchinson said. " Anything that reminds us that the world is a hell of a lot bigger than our own backyard is worth being involved in."
Human Rights Torch Relays will also be run in Mackay Thursday November 8, Townsville Friday 9, and the Gold Coast and Cairns simultaneously on Saturday November 10.
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