Mineral water skolling, gumboot throwing, sausage eating … It’s Glenlyon’s big day out

He’d just won the men’s mineral water drinking world championship, and Michael McLaughlan was happy but surprised.

He hadn’t counted on being the fastest, skolling one litre in 9.04 seconds and beating eight other men to win one of the most popular events at Glenlyon Sports Day, which is held every New Year’s Day.

But McLaughlan’s wife, Rebecca Ewer, was confident her husband would blitz the field.

“Every morning he gets out of bed and drinks a litre of water just like he did there,” she said. “Blink and you’ll miss it.”

McLaughlan, of Glenroy in Melbourne’s north, won a trophy and $150, but it wasn’t the point.

A newspaper clipping about the Glenlyon Sports Day from 1918.Credit: The Daylesford Advocate, Yandoit, Glenlyon and Eganstown Chronicle

Ewer said the couple and children Ruby, 5, and Pearl, 3, along with baby Angus, had a wonderful time at the old-fashioned festival.

The low-key but much loved Sports Day has run for more than 100 years in Glenlyon, a hamlet near Daylesford, 100 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

There were no flashy rides, sideshows or junk food stalls, just barbecued sausages and home-made cakes sold to raise money for St Michael’s school, woodchopping and gumboot throwing competitions and kids’ foot races.

The sun shone on the bush setting, Glenlyon Recreation Reserve near Wombat State Forest, and visitors picnicked in the shade of gentle oak trees.

The Glenlyon Cup horse race didn’t run this year due to problems obtaining insurance.

But organising committee president Damian Leonard said the day remained an entertaining way to welcome 2025.

Lauren Bryde won both the women’s speed mineral water drinking competition and the women’s bullboar sausage eating contest.

The mineral water comes from a nearby spring, while the sausage containing beef, pork, garlic and spices aligns with the area’s Swiss-Italian heritage.

Bryde had driven her two horses, in a float, more than 200 kilometres from her home in Invergordon, north of Shepparton, to compete in showjumping and other equestrian events at the Sports Day.

Bryde, a veterinarian, said she first came to Glenlyon Sports Day five years ago with friends who live locally “and had the best time”.

She still loves it, despite the six-hour round-trip drive. “I love the horse stuff, the eating stuff, the whole vibe. It’s just my favourite day. It’s country. It’s relaxed. It’s just perfect.”

Local resident Kate Thomas successfully defended her 2024 Ladies’ Nail Drive title. The event involves hammering a four-inch nail into a block of wood with the fewest hits.

There was a nail-biting four-way tie on five hits, but Thomas won on her next try, with four hits.

But for her, the best part of the Sports Day was “catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a while, so it was a lovely day”.

Thomas works two jobs, at a bakery and packing eggs, and also does housework on the family sheep and cattle farm at Porcupine Ridge.

“It’s my day,” she said, of the Sports Day. “I don’t cook, I don’t clean. I just go, I sit, and I relax and enjoy the day.”

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