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Derek made sure the scouts had a field day |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jan 20 2007 at 8:23 PM |
Dated 18th Jan 2007 - Source
OVERWHELMING – that’s how the Elmore Field Days Committee president Derek Shotton describes the success of the recent 21st Australian Scout Jamboree.
Its success has already enticed other organisations to consider the site for future events.
Elmore locals started working on the Scout jamboree project seven years ago.
The locals were was approached by Elmore scout leader and town policeman Dave Rowlands who attended a jamboree in Sydney.
He returned with photos and information that would entice the locals to try and attract a Scout jamboree to the field days’ site.
‘’I started off by contacting local shires and tourism people and then I came across Liz Carney from the Events Group in Bendigo," Derek said.
"She really helped us in getting a submission together and also assisting to get the whole region behind our efforts and we spent about two years lobbying and preparing the submission.
"We made up a list of things the Scouts could do when they were in the region like train times, plane turnaround times, and even average weather conditions.
"Then we got word that the scouting movement was calling for nominations for a site and we asked them to come up and have a look at what we had to offer.
"We then involved the Campaspe Shire and the City Of Greater Bendigo and showed the leaders around the Echuca and Bendigo areas and presented our formal bid.
"Two or three weeks later we were told we were in the final three. We were up against Mafeking Park in the Dandenongs and also our country rival Ballarat."
It was fitting that Elmore was chosen for this significant event.
It has brought the close-knit community out in force in recent weeks and the town’s residents, led by Derek, have responded magnificently.
Our Newsmaker was born in Elmore and lived on the farm at Diggora West and because the school bus went right past the farm gate he went to Rochester’s primary and secondary schools.
He worked on the farm for five years, but was forced off the land in the 80s when the drought hit and found employment with a tank firm in Rochester.
The opportunity then came up to work in Melbourne where he had a 10-year stint at Visy-board.
The expansion of his family forced Derek to rethink his residency and he decided Melbourne was not the best place to raise children. Hence, our Newsmaker brought a dairy farm near Rochester.
‘’At the time everyone said that the Eppalock system was the safest irrigation system in Australia and the farm was on the Eppalock/Campaspe system and we put in 10 pretty hard years,’’ Derek said.
During his time in Melbourne, Derek always maintained his membership with the Elmore Field Days and on his return was quickly back among the locals and on the committee.
One of his first jobs was to organise the paddock displays where farm machinery experts demonstrate their equipment in a typical farm environment.
It was these contacts with the farm machinery groups that saw Derek sell his dairy farm and become a farm machinery salesman with the Huntly firm Midstate Machinery.
Now he is firmly entrenched as president of the Elmore Field Days Committee, Derek is thrilled with the involvement of the community and sporting groups which helped make the jamboree so successful.
This has opened the doors to similar events being held at the site in the future.
‘’We have in the past had lots of trade shows, beef expos, swap meets, farm machinery demonstration days and companies also use the site for trade launches," Derek said.
"About 12 months ago we made the decision to name the site the Elmore Events Centre to just reinforce that it is not just a field days site.
"It became more of an issue of attracting more events to the site and to use our infrastructure and the results are now coming our way."
The field days leader said the Caravan Club was coming in 2010 bringing between 1000 and 1500 vans to the site for 10 days and then they have a motor home convention coming to town.
‘’More and more groups are coming to look at ways of using the field days site and the latest is the Driver Education program in conjunction with Rochester Rotary, which will involve schools within a 150-kilometre radius and we are also looking at other ventures at the moment so it is a pretty exciting time for all involved,’’ Derek said.
People from around the district have got a taste of what can be achieved when they work together.
The concessional catering arrangement for the jamboree saw 19 different groups from Elmore, Lockington and Rochester, working side by side.
Five-hundred-and-sixty locals worked shifts selling drinks and ice creams to the thirsty Scouts.
Then, of course, there are the many businesses who benefited from the daily influx of Scouts to major centres, such as Echuca and Bendigo, and then came the hardware needs of the site. Firms in Bendigo, Rochester and
Echuca did very well from the jamboree.
Derek said much of the infrastructure now on site included the piping, sewer and drinking water and these would be decommissioned and left for another day.
‘’It’s all GPS plotted and we can find it easily and ready for the next jamboree if the Scouts ever want to come back," he said.
"With these types of events in the future we can say to people that we have the water and the sewer lines and our two big car parks have water and sewerage under them as well."
Elmore should be proud of what has been done in hosting the Scout pamboree.
Particularly in light of the other two cities of Dandenong and Ballarat, which tried so hard to lure this significant event their way.
It is understood that if either of those two cities had hosted the event in recent weeks it would have had to be cancelled.
The risk of fire was too great in the Dandenongs and with Ballarat on stage four water restrictions there were grave concerns there as well.
Sydney is the next city to host the Scout jamboree and it is possible the event could return to Victoria in six or nine years.
Elmore has got a taste of big events and the locals are sure to throw their hats in the ring for another crack at hosting the youth of the nation.
Well done to Derek and his field days’ committee on their foresight in attracting such a massive event to this tiny, tight knit community.