Despite the cold weather, there were rather a lot of people around. And 99.9 per cent of them had red hair.

Red heads of the Southern Highlands were responding to a photo call by Highlands Post reporter Leah O’Brien.

She noticed that despite reports that red heads were becoming “extinct” because of a recessive gene, there seemed to be lots of them in the Southern Highlands.

About 50 proud carrot tops, ranging from grandparents and an 11-week-old baby, responded to the call.

Joan Weir of Bundanoon recalled that at her all-girl school she used to be called carrot top, but she’s never been tempted to change the colour.

“Red hair doesn’t take to dye,” she said.

Stephen Abbott, also of Bundanoon, has been called Rarey (as in rare steak), Bloodnut, Bluey and Carrot top.

Taryn Power and her children Camille Benson, 10, Bailey Benson, 7, and Willow Benson, 4, are “definitely” proud of their red hair.

Taryn admits to a brief period as a bleached blonde, but she also recalled getting a spiral perm like former red head Nicole Kidman.

Kelesi Woodhouse of Moss Vale attributes her red hair and blue eyes to her Irish and Scottish ancestry.

Although she’s Australian born, her fair skin is a disadvantage in the sunny climate and she’s even had a doctor tell her to “go back to Ireland where you came from”.

Andrew Chinn, an ambassador to the Australian Orangutan Project, and his daughters Kylie Wilshaw and Eleanor Chinn, brought along their “ranga” mascots and posed with Andrew’s “Ranga 1” number plate.

“I take it as a term of affection,” Andrew said.

Although red heads are rare - making up just 4 per cent of the population - and likely to get rarer thanks to a recessive gene - experts agree that the “extinction” claim is false and red heads will always be around.

That’s good news for everyone gathered at Lake Alexandra.

Gene Tosh of Mittagong, who posed proudly with his daughter Daisy, summed up the mood of the day.

“You’ve got to be proud to be a red head,” he said.