By Jeremy Sollars
The future of the iconic Allora Heritage Weekend is in doubt following a falling out between the event’s organisers and the Allora Show Society over use of the Allora Showgrounds arena for the annual tractor pull.
The Allora Heritage Weekend – which generates around $25,000 a year for local community groups and brings thousands of visitors to ‘The Best Little Town on the Downs’ – has been run over the Australia Day weekend in January for more than two decades.
But the 2017 event could be the last unless common ground can be found and a compromise reached between the Allora Show Society and the Warwick Veteran and Vintage Vehicle Club, which organises the weekend.
In a letter from the show society to the club on 28 February, a month after the 2017 Heritage Weekend, the society advised it would no longer allow the use of the showgrounds arena for the popular tractor pull, due to the damage caused to the black soil surface.
The society has said the grand parade, show tractor race and other events which it says do not damage the arena can continue, and has offered the use of land adjacent to the showgrounds just to the east for the tractor pull, along with moving portable grandstands over to that area.
Show society president Conrad Schnitzerling told the Free Times the society had made a decision based mainly on safety for equestrian competitors at other events held at the showgrounds.
“The Allora Show is held basically straight after the Heritage Weekend – this year the dressage started the following weekend – so we don’t have time to fix up the arena after the tractor pull,” he said.
“We have a duty of care to horses and riders – if a horse goes down in one of those holes it’s very serious.
“So we’ve just taken a decision not to allow any events in the arena that are going to damage it.
“We have been discussing this with them (the Vehicle Club) for some time, it’s not as though it’s just come out of the blue.”
Mr Schnitzerling said the Show Society was about to spend $30,000 – a combination of society funds and gaming grants – on upgrading the arena with crusher dust and sand, “to take some of the slipperiness out of the ground when it rains”.
Warwick Veteran and Vintage Car Club president Peter Stacey acknowledged the tractor pull affected the arena surface but said the club had offered to “repair and re-turf” the surface at its own expense.
“The tractor pull is what draws the crowd and keeps them there,” he said.
“People won’t want to walk the 250 yards to see the tractor pull in another location, and the area the Show Society has offered us has no shade, no power and no water or amenities.
“They also want us to move the car display from the current shaded area to the main ring, which would cause too much congestion with the grand parade.
“You can’t break the event up into small components.
“They have made it pretty impossible for us and unless we can reach some kind of compromise there is every chance the Heritage Weekend will have to cease.”
Mr Stacey said organisers could look at other venues – such as other showgrounds in the region – but the club didn’t want Allora to lose out, with the community having hosted the event since 1995.
“We give away all the money the event brings in, but from a commercial point of view for businesses in Allora it’s huge,” he said.
Mr Stacey has met recently with Southern Downs mayor Tracy Dobie – as has Mr Schnitzerling – and remains hopeful a compromise can be hammered out.
“We just someone to intervene and mediate,” Mr Stacey said.
“Maybe if a different set of eyes had a look over it they might be able to come up with a logical course of action.”
Manager of the Railway and Commercial Hotels in Allora Robyn Miles said businesses in the town would be devastated if the Heritage Weekend came to an end.
“It brings thousands of people into the town,” Robyn said.
“Both hotels are always fully-booked out for accommodation the whole weekend every year.
“And there’s also all the people who come in for lunch and dinner.
“The whole town is pretty well booked-out, including the bed and breakfast operators.
“I think we are all hopeful some kind of compromise can be found.”
Since 1995
* The Heritage Weekend is known internationally, having been a subject in historical vehicle magazines in Britain and other countries.
* The weekend was born in 1995, as an opportunity for local enthusiasts to roll their vehicles, machinery and motors out of their sheds and “have a bit of fun”.
* In a few short years to year 2000, the Heritage Weekend was famous throughout Queensland and NSW and provided a line-up of hundreds of displays, the large majority working, for the enjoyment of the endless crowds rolling up to the event.
* Recent years have provided the historical machinery feast with plenty of challenges weather-wise, the 2011 Heritage Weekend actually cancelled due to local flooding issues, and the 2012 and 2013 events affected by rain.
* The historical machinery extravaganza, arranged by the group of dedicated WVVVC volunteers from around the central and Southern Downs, takes pride of place in this part of the world, fittingly on the Australia Day weekend, and now boasts exhibit numbers in the thousands, countless visitors and international fame.
* While historical machinery will roll into Allora from around Australia, the contribution from local vehicle and machinery restorers gives accurate recollections of the Southern Downs historical past.
– courtesy Allora Heritage Weekend website
