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By Kate Hill
Orana’s Kirsty Bowden and Tracie Walker
with their famous Blue Lake water.
pull the water up by the light
of the full moon,” she said.
The real story is the water comes
straight from the tap, with some
added ‘extras’.
“Even though it is Blue Lake
water, yes, it might have a dash
of blue food colouring. We call
it enhanced,” Tracie said.
“It’s only to promote the Blue
loves
I
t’s a must-have trinket for the
many tourists that visit Mount
Gambier each year but behind
the little bottles of ‘Blue Lake
Water’ is an entertaining story.
Each year for more than
Lake. You’re not supposed to drink it
but I reckon there’s a few who do.”
Every few months, the workshop
It’s in the water
swings into Blue Lake Water mode
and workers like 25-year-old Kirsty
Bowden take a break from the
With Mount Gambier’s main water
supply coming from the famous
production lines.
For the team, the job is fun but
Blue Lake atop the city, the bottle of exacting, involving measuring, manual
bright blue water both delights and handling skills and high standards
confounds tourists. under the watchful eye of Tracie.
Orana Supervisor Tracie Walker
On a sunny Wednesday, Kirsty is
20 years, the Mount Gambier laughs as she describes the common filling bottles with water, screwing on
workshop of Orana Australia myths about the popular tourist item. lids and ensuring all the labels are
Ltd turns out hundreds of the
“The main legend is that late
bottles to be delivered to tourist at night, when everyone is asleep,
hotspots around the city in we sneak down to the Blue Lake
South Australia’s South East. with a rope and a bucket and
precisely centred.
“It’s fun to do something different
to what I normally do,” she said.
After a morning’s work, an order of
75 bottles is packed and ready to go.
Kirsty has been working at
Orana for seven years, one of 12
workers at the disability employer
in Mount Gambier.
Orana operates across
metropolitan and regional South
Australia, providing employment,
training, housing, respite and life skills
support to people with disability.
www.oranaonline.com.au
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