General News
1 March, 2024
Good weather for vintage machinery displaying
PLEASANT weather brought out vintage machinery enthusiasts for Lismore’s third annual Vintage Machinery Display and Vintage Tractor Pull, but numbers were lower than previous years.
The first day, Saturday, saw around 150 people pass through the gates, with Sunday seeing a decrease.
Western Plains Machinery Preservation Group Inc. member Stephen Ringe said he was a bit disappointed in the lower crowd numbers this year.
“No-one seems to know or can put a finger on what the reason might be for that, whether it was because of the fires at Beaufort, or it was the cost of living, or whether people are just reluctant to come and participate,” he said.
“Could be a number of things.
“It was successful as far as participation from exhibitors and the weather and the different exhibits that we had, but crowd numbers were down, which was a bit disappointing.”
Despite the low numbers, the Vintage Machinery Display and Vintage Tractor Pull had positive feedback from attendees.
“Everybody I spoke said it was a great show, and they had a really good time,” Mr Ringe said.
“We had good support from the Cobden club and the Geelong club, and we had some really good displays of tractors and machinery and a shearing demonstration.
“We had a good display of classic cars on Saturday, but not so many on Sunday.”
Mr Ringe said the tractor pull event continued to be a crowd favourite, but some other exhibits and displays drew a lot of attention from attendees.
“We had one of the Cobden members bring his horse works up, and we ran that utilising human power and driving a small grister,” he said.
“That created a lot of interest. He (the horse works exhibitor) was very pleased with that result.
“The shearing demonstration was a new thing, and that created a bit of interest as far as the process.
“There were a few people asking a lot of questions about wool and how it is sorted, graded and cleaned – the whole process. Our shearer was excited to come back next year and make it a regular demonstration.”