Corowa 2009 -'Year of the Amphibian & Year of the Blitz 2'

[Rusty]

Yes that was rather blunt but that’s how I feel about the place when it comes to supporting the swap meet and camping. If we want this event and the military vehicle preservation movement to grow we need the support of our wives and children who will become the next generation of collectors. Lets make this event more than just men and their toys.

Bamarang park offers a playground, grass underfoot and shelter from the sun it also allows partners who are less than smitten with your shopping activity to walk back to camp or up to the shops. This is a much more family oriented venue, in years past Corowa locals also used to wander thru the vehicles parked over the road for a looksee.

The airport has none of these facilities; stalls were set up on gravel roadways were a number of cars drove thru the crowd why was the area not sealed off? cars and shoppers don’t mix.

I can fully understand the need for using the airport to support the tracked vehicles it would also make a great parking bay for those that bring prime movers to support there kit. BUT why split the event to two locations if there is no heavy tracked stuff or a big increase in numbers?

There are two types of people who attend Corowa, those who attend every year and those that turn every few years. The regulars all camp on their little patch of turf with a vehicle of choice others are influenced by the Year of Theme; but after attending for the last 8 years growth has been steady but not exponential . I have read that we will have 200 attend next year but this is just an estimate and I can see no metrics presented that leads to this conclusion.

In summary Ball park can probably accommodate a lot more, I have never booked and always got a site, in fact unless it’s a Cabin you want the manager advises just turn up. With a little thoughtfulness by attendee’s, prime movers and support trailers could be parked at the airport freeing a large amount of grassed areas.

Lets keep the event together at Ball Park but have contingency in place in case of an overflow.