Corowa 2020

[Richard Farrant]

I have just been prompted to put something on here about the Swim-In which took place in Australia a few weeks ago (Terry, thanks for the prompt!).

We will have a full report in the next KVE News which should released in early June, but just a quick run down now on our 41st event, which was actually the 40th anniversary of the first one, every one held on the same location, Ball Park Caravan Park at Corowa, on the banks of the Murray river..

As we arrived over the bridge by the caravan park, I looked down at the lagoon where the boat ramp is and said that it was unlikely we would launch any amphibians there, the river level was so low. This was correct and the amphib owners did a recce and found ramps on the Victoria side of the river, but ultimately found a great location on Lake Moodamere which is close by.

Our theme this year was Military Motorcycles and we got 33 there, a good assortment originating from several countries and periods. Participants come from all corners of Australia, no mean feat with the furthest driving their military vehicles from Perth, Western Australia and north of Bundaberg in Queensland. There were 235 military vehicles entered which was a little down on numbers, but bearing in mind the recent bush fires and related problems, it was understandable. It was encouraging to see a number of newcomers there and one guy said to me that he wished he had known about the event years ago and he is definitely returning.

Despite the advance of Covid-19, there was no warning of lockdown prior to the event, only concern in the country was the mad rush to buy toilet rolls. The week's activities were well received and nobody had any worries, the event ended with a meal at the RSL club on Sunday night, when we heard it announced that from midnight all events of 500+ people were banned. So we were probably one of the last events to take place before the lockdown.

We must give our grateful thanks for the sponsorship received from the Federation Council and the Corowa RSL and their valuable support to the event..

regards, Richard