Wimmera showcase
The Wimmera’s biggest business and social event will make its long-awaited return next week — one of the region’s final events to return after an extended COVID-19 hiatus.
Organisers, exhibitors and visitors are welcoming a chance for reconnection at the three-day Wimmera Machinery Field Days when Wimmera Events Centre at Longerenong re-opens its gates from Tuesday.
It comes ahead of The Weekly Advertiser Horsham Fishing Competition, across the Labor Day long weekend, and after a sold-out three-day food and wine festival at Maydale Reserve in Horsham.
West Wimmera’s Lake Charlegrark Music Marathon, Goroke Rodeo and Henley on Lake Wallace have already attracted considerable visitation to the region in recent weeks.
Wimmera Machinery Field Days president Tim Rethus said organisers and the event’s volunteer committee had welcomed a chance to prepare the event with more confidence this year.
The 2022 instalment was cancelled just weeks before it was scheduled due to cross-border restrictions and COVID-19 transmission concerns.
The 2020 event occurred just a week prior to the declaration of the pandemic.
“The biggest highlight of the 2023 event is that we are back – the Wimmera Machinery Field Days is returning to the region’s calendar after two years of cancellations,” he said.
“The sheer number of people we bring to the region is really important to the economy.
“You find all the restaurant and accommodation places are booked out as far as the eye can see.
“The event brings people into our area. People come back who haven’t been here for some time, or at all, and by bringing them here from a wide catchment area, they can see what Horsham and the Wimmera has to offer.”
Horsham Rural City Council tourism and business development officer Gloria Mcrae said it was the municipality’s time to shine.
She said the coming fortnight could bring more than 20,000 visitors to Horsham and surrounding towns.
“Events bring opportunities for community participation, involving volunteering and social connection. When our hometown hosts an event, we feel proud to be part of the community, positive and optimistic – this is the emotional power that events like the field days provide,” she said.
“As a council, we know the next few weeks is our municipality’s time to shine.
“There are extra operational tasks to be done such as traffic and waste management, additional mowing and in general we want to offer clean and attractive public facilities.
“Visitors want to see a municipality at its best when they are here and we are up for the challenge.”
Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said large-scale events served as an ‘appetiser’ to promote the region to visitors.
He said during COVID-19 lockdowns, lockouts and restrictions and as the region began its recovery, people’s understanding of the breadth of impact of the visitor economy was growing.
“COVID was challenging for many places but there was also some silver linings. One of those is the community’s understanding of the trickledown effect of visitor economy spend,” he said.
“Historically, there were people or industries who would say, ‘I’m not in the visitor economy’. But when visitors stop coming, as we saw, then everybody is affected.”
Wimmera Development Association chief executive Chris Sounness said the field days showcased the growing opportunities in agriculture and promoted the region as a great place to live and work.
“For our region to grow, we need to showcase it well – and the Wimmera Machinery Field Days does a great job at building our profile. It focuses on our competitive advantage – agriculture and food production – and brings people from across Australia to highlight innovation and where agriculture is moving to next,” Mr Sounness said.