Henley on Todd: Cancellation of iconic event puts 30th birthday bash in question

The commodore of an iconic Red Centre river regatta has pledged to “do the right thing” after the shock cancellation of the iconic event, as a 30th birthday muster is thrown into question.

Imparja Battle of the Boats during the Henley-On-Todd Regatta on August 17, 2019 in Alice Springs, Australia.

Hundreds of caravaners who were set to descend on the Red Centre for a birthday party – which had a dry river regatta as the centrepiece – have been left disappointed by the event’s cancellation.

But the organisers say they’ll “do the right thing” by them.

From August 16 to 22, Ultimate Caravans will be hosting their birthday muster at the Ross River resort, and the drawcard for the event was three replica caravans the company was going to enter in the Henley on Todd Regatta.

But then this year’s Henley on Todd, due to take place Saturday August 17, was cancelled –50 days before the event was due to go ahead.

Ultimate Caravans general manager Alan Masters said it was disappointing to hear the event was cancelled.

“We’ve been doing a hell of a lot of planning for the last six months about how our 30th anniversary muster (was) gonna take the place, and we’d centred one of the main days of our muster around the Henley on Todd to a point, whereas we’d actually worked with the organising committee to have a similar logo for our event as it was for the Henley on Todd,” he said.

“We’ve made three full size replica campervan bodies to enter in the event.”

Mr Masters said about “six or seven thousand” dollars was spent making the bodies, while the company will be “60 grand out of pocket” to run the muster.

About 300 had registered for the muster, and there were provisions organised so that even members with furry friends could come along to the Henley on Todd, Mr Masters said.

Henley-on-Todd commodore Lester Hamilton. Andrew Lelliott.

“Henley, I’m told, wasn’t a dog friendly event, so we actually organised some doggy daycare for that so dog owners could come down to the event,” he said.

Mr Masters said the company dished out $6000 to sponsor the event, and had planned to make their camper run a marquee event – offering cash prizes to winners who ran in their “boats”.

The company was only made aware of the cancellation through social media, according to Mr Masters.

Henley on Todd Regatta commodore Lester Hamilton said “there’s no fun” in the cancelling the event and acknowledged that the people coming down for the muster would be disappointed.

“Their whole trip down to Alice Springs has been focused around participating in the Henley on Todd, on that Saturday August 17,” he said.

When asked if Ultimate Campers sponsorship money would be refunded, Mr Hamilton said “we’ll do the right thing”.

“We’ll make sure that we can satisfy them and absolutely do the right thing,” he said.

The event has been postponed to next year, with Mr Hamilton reiterating it will “take a miracle” for the event to run this year.

Issues with funding and finding an event manager are the reasons Mr Hamilton has cited for the event’s cancellation.

Mr Hamilton said he couldn’t provide more information until the the Henley on Todd board met on Tuesday July 2.