[Mike Kelly]

Hi Bob

Hooray !

Yes , I agree with your comments totally . Bendigo over the past few years has become a glorified trash and treasure market . Many of the sellers are selling everything but old car parts - pots and pans , old clocks , bric a brac , crockery etc.

Plus , most of the vehicle parts on offer are from the 1960's onwards . Much of the stuff is Holden and Falcon parts . It really has fallen off , I don't go anymore . The venue is a dustbowl , hot windy squalls have you thinking your in the Sahara desert . You walk for miles around disorganised rows of tables , I always get lost .

The prices for the parts are generally outrageous, people seem to think because its Bendigo , things are worth twice the normal rate .

I used to attend Bendigo swap every year 20 years back , it never was a good swap for military stuff . I often used to come home with nothing . The days of rows of vintage car parts dragged out of the barn are long gone .

I did score a pair of Chev Blitz brake hoses one year , but I must have walked 10 miles around that track in 37 C temp to find them !

I have much better luck at the smaller local swaps . Ballarat is better organised I have heard . Nicer location , but , again you have to walk for miles or use a push bike to see it all .

Mike .