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Drifting away on Australia Day

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It isn’t often that you see flamingos, unicorns or even paddle pops floating down the Murray River, but every year on the Australia Day long weekend at Koondrook and Barham you will see that and more.

More than 430 people, came from all over, even as far as Melbourne, to come and take part in the annual Lilo Race from the Koondrook boat ramp on Gunbower Creek to the Barham Boat ramp on the Murray River.

Alice Abdilla and her family travelled all the way from Port Melbourne just to take part in the event and said that it was the first time they had been to Koondrook and Barham.

“I love being on the water and we knew there would be lots of other people on Lilos and it’s something different to do on Australia Day and great to be out on the Murray River,” she said.

Her sister Emma added that one of the highlights of the day will be to see everyone with all the different types of floaties.

Koondrook Barham Football Netball Club vice president, Jane Goggoll, said that although it is a big event it is probably one of the easiest to organise out of all the club’s fund raisers.

“It is so well known everyone just knows that it happens,” she said.

“There is a group of about 45 that came up from Bendigo, purely to go in the lilo race.

“We have people from Ballarat, Echuca and Melbourne as well.

“Many book accommodation in the town, which is great for local tourism.”

Event sponsor, Bree Derksen, from Trend Skate n Surf said that this was possibly the biggest turnout in the history of the event with 438 participants registering to float down the Murray River.

“It was amazing to see such a great number of people entering,” Ms Derksen said.

“I really love sponsoring this event. It’s the highlight of our year and there are people coming from all around and heaps and heaps of locals.”

Joe Vella from Cohuna and his family were looking forward to a nice family day on the river taking a leisurely cruise down the river.

First ashore at Barham was 16 year old Loui Ralston from Ballarat taking out the prize in the junior category and he was followed closely by his 18 year old brother, Bill Ralston, who took out the senior first place.

Loui said that the last time he had raced was a few years ago and he was thrilled to win doing the trip in under 30 minutes.

Senior champion Bill Ralston said that it felt really good to take out first place and, initially, was not sure where he had placed.

“I didn’t realise until I hit the shore. The last 30 metres was pretty hard,” he said.

“Coming out of the Gunbower was shocking. There was a lot of current which made it a little difficult.”

All that was left for many, after the race, was to walk back to Koondrook to pick up their vehicles, sporting their inflatable river craft across the bridge.

The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper 30 January 2025

See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 30 January 2025.

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