‘HUMAN’ PENGUINS BREAK WORLD RECORD

By Brittany Hancock

It was a very strange sight: more than 500 human-sized penguins gathered at one of Rockingham’s most popular tourist destinations on Saturday.

Penguin Island was the perfect setting for a Guinness world record attempt for ‘Most People Dressed As Penguins In One Place.’

Steph Burns, secretary of the Rockingham Youth Advisory Council, is confident they were successful.

“The record was 371 in London. We had 200 on the beach and 300 in the picnic area,” she said.

Rockingham Wild Encounters and the City of Rockingham hosted the sell-out event, an idea thought up by the Youth Advisory Council.

“It came up in one of the YAC meetings. We were brainstorming ideas for events and our chairperson at the time said wouldn’t it be awesome if we could have an event on Penguin Island where everyone dresses as penguins,” said Miss Burns.

Miss Burns hopes the event will assist in building awareness of the Youth Advisory Council.

“We want to show the community that YAC is not an organisation that should be forgotten about, we want to be involved and we want to get to know our community,” she said.

The record attempt began from 7am with participants taking ferries over to the island where the official count would take place. 

Rockingham Wild Encounters marketing manager Holly Tate said the process was very specific.

“We had to count everyone, and then also provide video evidence. Everyone had to be dressed exactly the same, including beak and flippers,” she said.

Following the count, participants were treated to a complimentary breakfast and entertainment held nearby at Lions Park.

Skip, of Waikiki,  said this wasn’t the first time he’d taken part in a world record attempt. 

“I’m already in the Guinness Book of Records for the ‘Most Number Of Pirates on Hastings Beach’ in the UK,” he said.

The City of Rockingham will now provide evidence to the Guinness Book of Records who will then determine if all the criteria have been met.