BARRACK Reserve will come alive on Australia Day with the fourth annual Picnic in the Park and it\u2019s shaping up to be a great family day out.<\/p>\n
Heathcote RSL sub-branch secretary Miles Humphrey said it was a community-oriented event with free food and entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make a point of saying we don\u2019t have any official format,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s welcome, it\u2019s just a very relaxed picnic.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come along and sit in the park and enjoy the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a petting zoo which is very popular and we put on free ice cream from the Bendigo Ice Creamery cart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve upped the catering for that this year, last year we forecast about 300 and we needed 500.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a sausage sizzle and entertainment from Bremer River Band and the Clan MacLeod Pipe Band.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year\u2019s picnic was especially good because we had a lot more young families, we had heaps of kids there,\u201d Mr Humphrey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think word had got around from the previous few years and people just came in from everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Picnic in the Park is the successor to the long-running Heathcote Australia Day ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we wanted to do was have a community family picnic,\u201d Mr Humphrey said. \u201cNo bells and whistles, just put some entertainment on and do a free sausage sizzle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year we found we could get a small grant from the council and we got a jumping castle and entertainment. It just got bigger and bigger from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunding support for the event for the event comes primarily from our sub-branch social fundraising throughout the year, a grant from City of Greater Bendigo, and donations from local businesses such as Mandalay Resources and The Barn Pet Stock & Feed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll other support comes from our valued volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sub-branch has been able to stage the event each year despite COVID restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that last year and the year before, we were only one of three places in the whole Bendigo area that kept going with it-otherwise they were all cancelled,\u201d Mr Humphrey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said no, we’re going to keep going with it. We still had to do all the risk assessments and paperwork for COVID and have it registered. But it’s just paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Picnic in the Park is at Barrack Reserve, Heathcote from 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday, 26 January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BARRACK Reserve will come alive on Australia Day with the fourth annual Picnic in the Park and it\u2019s shaping up to be a great family day out. Heathcote RSL sub-branch secretary Miles Humphrey said it was a community-oriented event with free food and entertainment. \u201cWe make a point of saying we don\u2019t have any official […]<\/p>\n