General News
13 November, 2025
From driveways to riverbanks Dimmy's big weekend a success
THE weekend was full of activity in Dimboola with bargain and treasure hunters driving all over town, sporting people competing, and people out to enjoy the sights and sounds of a community in movement and building lots of memories in the process.
The Town Garage Sale momentum began shortly after 7am on Saturday with the online release of 24 addresses – spanning from Hope Street to Malvern Road, with multiple locations in Lloyd Street and around the centre of town.
Organiser, Jeni Lorenz, said she was very pleased with the response from both sellers and buyers, but had to keep a firm hold on any early release of the details to the public.
“We had to keep them under lock and key – sort of – on Friday, because we had people wanting them early,” she said.
“Dimboola, you have yet again outshone yourselves.”
She said the Tower Park Trash and Treasure on Sunday was also successful, but did admit an issue organisers might address for the future was whether to rearrange the dates of the home locations to be different from the park location.
“I do think it did have a bearing on the garage sales,” Jeni said.
“The garage sellers didn't do quite as well on the Sunday as they did (on) the Saturday … so I guess next year, moving forward, we discuss whether, in fact, those two events share the day, or whether we share the weekend, or whether we give the trash and treasure people a weekend of their own.”
However, Jeni was still thrilled with the result overall.
“It was a really, really good response this year,” she said.
Looking after the market sales at Tower Park on Saturday was La Vergne Lehmann, who also noted the success of “lots of people running around town with the garage sale trail.”
However, she faced her own logistical challenges due to the slightly windier weather, but was grateful that this year they had a plan B ready.
“Because we had the option of putting stall holders into the Star Theatre for the first time, we were able to get them out of the wind,” she said.
“They were really happy with that outcome, so that was good.
“It did make the actual Tower Park look a little less busy, but it's a trade-off between having stall holders there and not having them there at all, (instead) flying away!
“It pays to be flexible!”
Some food stall cancellations also meant the Lions Club sold out of sausages in two hours on Saturday.
“The Lions Club on both days had their sausage sizzle and sold a lot of sausages,” Mrs Lehmann said.
“There were a lot of people in town for the regatta, for the basketball tournament, for the different markets.
"So there was something in town for everybody on the weekend.”
Regatta host, Mick Salter, was very pleased with his own corner of Dimboola’s offerings, calling it “a great weekend of rowing”.
“(There were) a lot of clubs from over Victoria that came, and they love coming to Dimboola,” he said.
“All up, 189 athletes came, so there was 206 entries for the weekend.”
Despite the somewhat colder and windier conditions on Saturday, he said the topography of the river still allowed the competition to have acceptable rowing.
“The river sits fairly low in the banks at Dimboola, so although it might have been windy on the top banks, where everyone's sitting and watching, but down on the water it was pretty good,” Mr Salter said.
“The racing started at eight o'clock in the morning and went through to 5.15 at night, so it was a full day of rowing.
“Socially, it was a great event – of course, there was a market around the rowing area as well, the twilight market.
“Then on Sunday, we had the head race, which was held over 6.2 (kilometres), and the weather was sensational for that.”
Mr Salter said the reaction from all who attended was extremely positive, and the quality of rowing was high.
“Feedback from the rowers, especially on the Sunday – (they were) saying, what a great weekend it was,” he said.
“Probably one of the highlights was on Sunday, where a quad four from Essendon Rowing Club set the fastest time, which included beating a number of eights.
“They came home in exceptional time.”
The work of volunteers across all events was repeatedly praised, with individuals and several community groups providing a wide range of selfless service for the weekend.