Barellan Working Clydesdales Committee President Bruce Bandy has praised the working committee behind the Good Old Days Weekend and their supporters for the continued outstanding success of the event.

“We have created a unique event which is the only festival in the world that showcases every different type of draught animal. I congratulate every one of our dedicated committee members for their amazing, tireless work and effort that made the 2025 Festival the most successful ever,” he said.

Addition of an extra day, Friday, to the annul festival proved very successful with lots of positive comments.

“We had some new attractions that proved to be a winner with the crowd. We thank Rod Sirl, Ron and Steve McKinnon for their Wood Chopping display.

“Emiliqua East, the current Australian Ladies Whip Cracking Champion, with her whip cracking demonstrations and crowd interactions proved to be a crowd pleaser for young and old.

“Once again, I appreciate the wholehearted effort that the bullockies Phil Thomson, Joey Reedy, Matt Stanford, Ron McKinnon and Darcy Quinn put into our festival especially the work with their bullock teams.

“The wheelwright display, a trade that dates back hundreds of years, was once again a crowd favourite thanks to Chris Hill and his off siders Phil Thomson and Burt.

“Camel racing is always a spectacle and again it didn’t disappoint thanks to Rodney Sanson, his family and his team also to Emily and the kids with their goat teams.

“Lachie Cossor enjoys performing at our event and loves coming back each year.

“Curly Charwood who was busy making shoes for the draught horses was a first timer to our festival. He has shod in the US at the Calgary Stampede and the Brewery Clydesdales and commented that our event was a little gem, something special!

“Mick Batchelor’s Lighthorse display is a favourite as Mick is so passionate about what he does.”

He grave praise for the sponsors - more than double compared to last year.

“Allison Prentice, who drove the sponsorship team with her helpers Stuart Smith and Julie Shore, showed their persistence and hard work attracting sponsors. A big coup this year was getting the Bendigo Bank on board as a major sponsor. We will work hard this year to give them the recognition and high profile they deserve.”

He also thanked the incredible, hardworking volunteers including Vicki Harris for sourcing the sponsors (as she does each year) and thanked them for their hard work before, during and after the event.

“Both footy clubs Two Blues and Rams, the Show Societies both Barellan and Ardlethan, the CWA Ladies and the Binya Ladies also assisted us with catering etc.

“To the Camp Oven team Sheryl and Peter Conlan, Paul Geddes and John Dando and their helpers, as usual your culinary camp oven skills are second to none and your meals are always a favourite with our visitors. Laura Curran and Lily helped set up, organise and man a stall at short notice to sell water and soft drink near the barbecue.

David Irvin and his team had another successful year with the furphy re-barrelling,

This year the bar had a facelift where Graham Pellergrino did some renovations to make the job easier for the bar staff.

Jan Evans entertained the kids with old fashioned games and always draws a crowd and finds entrants for the sheath tossing.

Jeanette Overs the merch lady revamped her site keeping to the olden day theme and was able to attract lots of visitors to her stall. Whilst doing that she was able to source animals for the kid friendly, hands-on petting ring AND milk a cow and make butter.

Warrick Doolan and Phil Halden held demonstrations on how working dogs manage stock. Working dogs are critical to the day-to-day running of farms and have played a major role in stock management since the early 1800’s.

Demonstrations of blade shearing by Lionel Garner and mechanical shearing by Ken Wilson also attracted a crowd.

The old art of rope making proved interesting to watch and Col Bandy encouraged the crowd to have a go at this craft.

Neil Findlay provided three months of free agistment for the horses and Jason Gavenlock single handedly built and ran the obstacle course.

Tim Peel and Paul Brooks - men of great knowledge of draught horses and history - organised the ring events and the judges.

Max Jamieson had a lineup of some great poets at breakfast and Noel Trembath used his expertise as a parking attendant and the Rams Rugby League Club helped him out.

The record-breaking horse team was a feature at the 2025 Festival. Aleks Berzins, Steve Johnson and the president himself invested many hours putting together the horse combinations for the 62-horse team to break the Australian and World Record. The hard work paid off on the Saturday and Sunday when the record was broken.

For that record Ian Dahlenberg’s Bennett wagon was loaded with wool from the Flagg Family of Moombooldool. A big thank you to Noel Wiltshire for donating the extra spiders needed for the big team.

Others who assisted were:

• Greg and Glenn Staines for their wonderful job as clerks, keeping everyone safe.

• GrainCorp for loaning generators.

• Boots Civil for the loan of their water truck.

• Ryan Trembath for setting up the power and being on standby over the weekend for issues.

• Rhonda Hogan for cooking a mean barbie at working bees.

• Laura, Adam Curran and family who just fill in where needed.

• Ken Overs for keeping the generators fuelled up.

“Plus my right-hand people who can read my mind and just know where to be at the right time: Stuart, Bomber, Andrew, Brenden, Kylie and Declan and my family who help me and put up with me the weeks before the event,” the president said.

“Finally, while I’ve acknowledged many people by name, I sincerely want to thank everyone who contributed in ways both big and small to the 2025 Barellan Good Old Days Festival.”