Birdman Rally reigns as Moomba Festival’s historic splash for charity
SINCE 1976, Moomba’s wildcard has been the Birdman Rally but the crazy idea to encourage the public to build flying machines was stolen from a small British town.
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SINCE 1976, Moomba’s wildcard has been the Birdman Rally.
But we stole the idea from a sleepy seaside town in the UK, Selsey, 16,960km away.
An enterprising chap named George Abel was trying to think of “a fundraising stunt”, begins Abel, a sprightly 86 years old.
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“I remembered reading about a gentleman who flew across a river in some kind of contraption to promote a supermarket. There were plenty of cameras around. It struck me as a way to get money and a crowd in. And it worked. We called it the Selsey International Birdman Rally.”
Tourists and lookie loos flocked from nearby towns.
“There was a sense of bewilderment at first. We’d get called at our flat by newspapers and asked if we were for real. I was amazed when we went down to the beach, it was full of people. We had one road into Chichester and it was backed up with traffic, halfway between Brighton and Portsmouth. The day was August 8, 1971,” he says.
“We gave away prizes for lunatics. It was sheer lunacy.
“There are events in the UK, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, Germany. They’re all at it: leaping idiots, it makes people laugh, no one gets hurt, lots of money gets raised.”
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Here’s where Melbourne comes in: “One of the representatives from Channel 10 was in Britain. He said, ‘This is a wonderful idea, I think we can use it’. Fortunately, we were moving to Australia, too, so I helped set it up.” Serendipity.
It debuted as part of the Moomba Festival in 1976 on the Yarra River on the Swan St bridge. Families flocked to see primitive, DIY hang-gliders take the plunge into the brown water. It was televised and rated its wings off.
Over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for various charities including Make a Wish Foundation and Royal Children’s Hospital.
It took a break in the late ’90s due to E.coli contamination. Clean-ups improved the water to acceptable levels and it returned in 2004.
“Melbourne mayor John So helped us. I was disappointed with how things had gone so it was great someone wanted to bring it back,” Abel says.
In 2005 the rally was held in the new inner-city park, Birrarung Marr, as contestants jumped off a 4m-high platform. Michael Paul won, gliding 10m on his Mono Plane to claim the $5000 prize.
Last year, Samuel Johnson won with his “boob-chute” Titty Titty Bang Bang as he leapt nearly 8m and raised $25,000 for the Love Your Sister Foundation. Contestants are judged on creativity of their costumes, “pre-flight performance” and how far they fly/fall.
“Some people work on the wretched things for a whole year. It’s left me staggered by the complexity of their contraptions … which go nowhere,” Abel says.
Tomorrow, Jimmy Giggle will be the first Moomba Monarch to take part as he pilots Owl Force One to raise cash for Very Special Kids.
“I don’t plan on swallowing any water,” says, Giggle, giggling.
Birdman Rally, Birrarung Marr. Sunday, 11.30am-2pm