Club helps school put more fish on the barbie
THE best beer Jason Mccutcheon has ever had was with some mates from Dubbo’s Garden Hotel Fishing Club – when the beers were finished, the St Johns Trangie P&F had a barbecue trailer worth thousands of dollars, free of charge.
Garden Hotel Fishing Club president Alan Herbert tells the story.
“Through a conversation with Jason over a couple of beers, he mentioned the P&F were looking to build one and the club decided we’d help them out.
“It’s a great cause and it will also help them to be able to fundraise.
“It originally cost about $16,000 to get the trailer built, and that was with a lot of it donated.
“It has a fold-out barbecue and sink on it and it’s been very well made but we no longer have a real use for it and haven’t had for a few years now, and through Covid.
“When we used to go away on a trip, a day trip or overnight camping, say at the dam, everyone would be fed out of this barbecue trailer and that was great a while ago but now most people have their own vans or camper trailers, and their own stuff when they travel away now.”
Mt Mccutcheon said the donation was incredibly generous.
“We were looking at purchasing one to do barbecue events throughout the year, fundraising for the school and these guys came along and we’re over the moon at the generosity,” he told Dubbo Photo News.
“We’re hoping to raise thousands of dollars during the year by putting on barbecues. Hopefully
everyone’s getting over the Covid hump and wanting to get out and do things.”
Mr Herbert said the fishing club was keen to support smaller towns all over the Western Region in any way they can.
“We’ve reformed the club after a few years’ hiatus. We’re looking to get some new members and we do actually go fishing. A lot more blokes have boats now and we’re going to go around and support fishing clubs in other towns such as Brewarrina and Bourke and other places. Whoever’s got a fishing club out there, throw us a line so to speak and we’ll come and support you if you’ve got an event and you can come and support us when we put something on.”
Mr Herbert said larger regional cities such as Dubbo were often seen as sponges, taking business off satellite towns and he says it’s important Dubbo residents give back to the smaller communities which pour so much economic activity into this city.
“Well, most of the blokes in this Garden Hotel Fishing Club don’t originally come from Dubbo, most are from Bourke, Trangie, Narromine and Gilgandra, places like that, I’m from Trangie and it’s important for us as a group to know where we came from and we really want to give that support back,” he said.
“The smaller towns are struggling, they’ve struggled through Covid and they’re still struggling now and they need people from Dubbo and other larger centres to go out there and support them.”