In the last report I wrote to the newspaper, I finished with 25mm of rain the week before or after the Rainbow Desert Enduro would be just fine. Well as usual I should have kept my mouth shut.
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I owe the competitors, spectators, volunteers, VORRA and our local committee a huge apology as we had just on 25mm of rain between Thursday, Friday, Saturday and even 5.20am Sunday. There was snow in Canberra, Daylesford and parts of New South Wales.
The race did go ahead minus Saturday's prologue, by far the best part of the race weekend as far as spectators go, and Sunday was touch and go. But we got there, with Greg Gartner winning the day and Mark and Mathew Burrows crowned the Australian Off Road Champions.
The cars looked fairly much like they had just emerged from a pond in Werribee (see photos on Rainbow Desert Enduro Facebook page), the mud stuck on blanket style.
A massive thank you to all the competitors, some from the Northern Territory and far north Queensland, for staying on and supporting our town and competing in the event. We are very humbled and proud to be your friends.
These type of events keep our little towns alive. We are already working on improving everything for next year. It is being proposed to move the event into early September after three years of almost being rained out.
The other big event in our shire at Dimboola the week before (and with better weather conditions) was the human powered vehicle (HPV) demonstration at the recreation reserve.
It was a great event bringing young people to Dimboola from Ballarat, Hamilton, South Australia and surrounding towns.
The highlight this year, though, was a visit from Andrew McLachlan, Chairman of the Australian HPV Super Series.
Andrew spent quite some time in town and was very impressed by the venue. Our CEO, executive staff and myself had a long and very interesting conversation about making Dimboola into a competition track.
I am very excited about this as I can see it potentially being a huge drawcard for the town, with competitors coming from interstate to compete.
Provided the Dimboola community are on board, I will endeavour to bring this event to town.
The tower for the weather radar was scheduled to be lifted into place on August 19 and wish it had been in place last weekend. I would have got them to turn up the amps and fry some of the rain on Friday/Sunday.
Nhill Cinema will be hosting the St Kilda Film Festival on Friday, August 23, with around 12 short films - a bit of something for everyone - comfortable surrounds and great digital sound and projection, both upstairs and downstairs. So come along and be well entertained.
Smile, it increases your face value!
Cr Ron Ismay, Hindmarsh Shire Council mayor