Sport
3 October, 2024
Inaugural dragon boat festival a hit
The Dragon Boat Pumicestone Club held its inaugural DragonFest on September 22, to promote the sport and raise money for the club. Over 200 competitors from as far south as Tweed and as far north as Hervey Bay made their way to Bribie Island for the inaugural event.
Despite this being a first for the club, it is also the first time there has ever been a fleet of dragon boats in the Pumicestone Passage.
Club member, Michelle Hanton OAM, said 500 people total attended the festival on Sylvan Beach, with a day jampacked with semi-competitive racing and family friendly attractions on land.
“The passage is tidal so it is not suitable to have a highly competitive event, and there’s plenty of those around the place, so we thought we would do something fun that showcases the area,” she said.
“We were very fortunate, we had way better uptake then we thought we’d have from the other clubs in South East Queensland, also from the community within Pumicestone.
“We had a BBQ, we had merchandise for sale and we had a kids corner, where they could make their own little dragon boats out of cardboard.”
There was four categories of semi-competitive races including Women’s, Open, Breast Cancer Survivor (BCS), and Corporate and Community, with five dragon boats in each race.
Winners from the four categories include the Cooloola Dragons for the Women, Blue Composite for the BCS, the Tweed Dragons for the open division, and the Bombora Outriggers for the Corporate and Community category.
The perpetual trophy winners of the inaugural DragonFest was the Fraser Coast Red Dragons.
Michelle added the club wanted to create a unique and creative to raise money for the community club and promote dragon boating.
“We wanted to do something that would raise the profile of the sport in the area, that would showcase and would also be a fundraiser for our club,” she said.
“Obviously, you need money to keep rolling on, to keep membership costs low for our members, because we are a community dragon boat club.”
The club raised just under $10,000.
The Dragon Boat Pumicestone Club is hosting a free come and try event on October 5, for people to learn all about the fun sport.
