Vol. 17 No. 3
FREE PUBLICATION
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
The one that got away? Horsham fishing contest treasurer Erica Blake, on the banks of the Wimmera River, ponders the future of the community fundraiser. Event organisers fear the 42-year-old contest will end unless more volunteers or an organisation offer to help. Picture: MICK SHANNON
T
By DEAN LAWSON
he Wimmera is on the brink of losing its iconic Labour Day Weekend Horsham fishing competition. Exhausted organisers have stopped planning for next year’s event and flagged an end to the big charity fundraiser. In a frank explanation to The Weekly Advertiser, Erica Blake and Prue Beltz, contest treasurer and secretary respectively, said the sheer weight of work from a shrinking volunteer committee had become too much. They agreed that the contest had reached a crisis point and the only hope for its survival was with the formation of a new committee or if an organisation or organisations adopted the event. Erica Blake said few people wanted to see the contest end but continuing with its organisational format would be impossible without major change.
IN THIS ISSUE
Fishing competition in doubt “We feel pretty gutted because we know how important it is for Horsham. We don’t want to see it come to an end and will put it into recess before making any firm decisions,” she said. “But the truth is that the current committee is not only tired, but also ageing and there needs to be either a massive influx of new blood to come in and take the reins or an organisation to come and take it over completely.”
Hard work Prue Beltz revealed that as few as seven people were turning up regularly to organisational meetings, some of them in their 70s, and it was impossible to plan ahead. “There is such a lot of hard work involved. While it is rewarding and you get a sense of accomplishment when everything goes well, it can also
be highly stressful,” she said. “Looking ahead at next year, with how it sits at the moment, we can’t make any commitment.” The Horsham contest, from Riverside to Horsham Weir, at one time claimed the title as the largest all-prizes-must-be-won inland fishing competition in the Southern Hemisphere. In the past few years it has pumped almost $100,000 annually into regional community and sporting organisations from registrations alone and has long generated an estimated $1-million for the Horsham economy every March. Every year for more than 40 years, except for when the drought left the Wimmera River river too shallow to fish or empty, between 1500 and 3000 anglers and their families and friends have created a river-bank camp city of
up to 5000. Visitors travel from across Victoria and interstate, many using the occasion as an annual get-together. Last year the contest offered a prize pool of more than $70,000, giving away major prizes the committee had bought or accepted as donations from supporting businesses.
Driving force Operational change is far from new for the event. Horsham Apex Club originally ran the event before a lack of members forced it to also seek help which led to a community committee taking charge. Former Horsham mayor and longtime community event organiser Kevin Dellar, 77, and father of Mrs Blake and Mrs Beltz, has been the event’s driving force as contest chairman.
Mrs Blake said the irony of the circumstance was that the contest had, in many respects, fought through tougher times and had evolved to a point where it was financially sound. “We’ve basically worked it into a position where, in many ways, we’re ahead of where we have been in the past. But it is the sheer number of hours being put in by a few and the fact that we’re all running out of steam that is making it unworkable. Everything is getting harder,” she said. Mrs Blake and Mrs Beltz said the committee would seek a meeting with Horsham Rural City Council for its thoughts but needed general community direction on what should happen with the competition. Mrs Blake: “We’re basically now looking for a life line instead of a fishing line.” People can get in touch with Mrs Blake on 0418 823 327 or Mrs Beltz, 0439 826 187.
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