Dimboola expo powering along
Potential expansion of a Dimboola Human Powered Vehicle Expo will come under the spotlight on Sunday as teams from across Victoria gather for the annual event.
The six-hour expo is returning to Dimboola Recreation Reserve for the third consecutive year, starting with a parade lap at 9.55am and ending at 4pm.
As the only human-powered vehicle event in western Victoria, the expo provides regional teams the chance to experience a unique and emerging engineering-based sport closer to home.
Hindmarsh Shire Council tourism and economic development officer Jeff Woodward said the Dimboola event, in comparison with long-running HPV events in Maryborough, Melbourne or South Australia, was more of a demonstration than a race.
He said while many teams preferred the ‘laidback’ nature, there was opportunity to bring the event up to official racing status.
“We’re hoping to get representatives from the South Australia HPV Super Series to come along to see what we can offer and look at opportunities to expand,” he said.
“Ideally, we want help to develop a plan to build the expo into a full racing event.
“What we were striving for right from the start was to create something that made it easier for more teams and schools from the region to get involved in this sport.”
Hindmarsh mayor Ron Ismay said the event had potential to build the HPV sport in western Victoria, with Dimboola Recreation Reserve a perfect location to develop an official
race event in the future. “Dimboola has been fortunate to secure the only event of this type in the west of Victoria, and this event has the potential to grow the sport and inspire more regional schools and communities to be involved,” he said.
“We hope to develop this venue to be able to host official race events.”
This year, eight teams and 20 human-powered vehicles will participate, with riders and support crews expected to total about 150 people.
Mr Woodward said the event, which predominately attracted school teams, would also feature at least one non-school entry.
“It was mainly established through schools as a way of educating students on minimal impact, engineering, fitness and human power,” he said.
“There’s a lot of technology, planning, thought and design that teams go through to get these vehicles slick-lined.”
Council chief executive Greg Wood said this year’s expo action would be captured by up to four camera locations at the track.
He said these would be live-streamed to Wimmera Mallee Tourism Facebook page through support from State Government’s Regional Events Innovation Fund.
Spectator entry will be free, with car-parking access via Park Street, Dimboola.
Apart from the Park Street entrance, all vehicle entrances into the Dimboola reserve will be closed from early Sunday morning until after the event finishes.
Mr Wood said preparation for the event would take place on Saturday, which meant access to the reserve would also be restricted on Saturday afternoon.