Step back in time at annual rally
Jeparit’s Wimmera-mallee Pioneer Mueseum will celebrate the Queen’s Birthday long weekend with a 12th annual vintage rally on Saturday and Sunday.
An array of exhibitors will be on hand to share stories and the history of the region’s European colonists.
Exhibits include vintage cars and a range of working tractors and engines, as well as craft, market, coffee and food stalls.
Clydesdales from the Sandy Creek stud – always a crowd favourite – will be present again, and will put one of the museum’s vintage ploughs to work in the paddock across the road, along with a chaff-cutting demonstration at the horse-works.
Artist Gayle Newcombe will also return to the rally.
The museum’s blacksmith shop, still in full working order, will operate for the entire weekend.
Rainbow historian Phillip Moleworth will present a talk about John Coppock entitled, ‘A squatter Coppock and the Albacutya Run’.
He will also perform a pantomine about the hold-up of Albacutya Station by bushranger ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan.
Food options include a roast to raise money for cancer research and a Lions Club barbecue.
Children’s entertainment includes a jumping castle and historical children’s games.
Woorak West Methodist Church will hold a special service on Sunday morning.
The museum itself showcases Australia’s largest collection of agricultural equipment, grain equipment, horse-drawn carriages and buggies, and household items from the 1890s to 1940.
Its displays include farming innovations that helped settle and create the farmland in region, such as the stump jump plough and horse or oxen-pulled Mallee rollers.
Many of the exhibits in the museum are still operating and are maintained by volunteers.
Elsewhere, Jeparit will host a town garage sale during the weekend, while Jeparit Bowls Club will have a ‘soup and scones’ lawn bowls tournament on Monday.
People can find more information by visiting the event Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ Wmpmjeparit.