This week Brunswick Heads will be hosting the annual Festival of the Fish ’n’ Chips, which attracts champion axe-wielders from across Australia and from overseas.
To get things warmed up, the festival will stage a family fireworks display in Banner Park at 9pm on Saturday (January 9).
From Wednesday January 13 to Sunday 17 the 56th annual woodchop carnival will see the chips flying. Some 80 axemen, women and juniors will contest the 34 events.
They are coming from all of the eastern states and WA, New Zealand and Canada. To foster the family atmosphere, women, junior boys and girls compete in single and mixed events alongside the men and veteran men.
The festival will be presenting two Australian woodchop titles – the Australian 375mm Standing Block and 275mm Underhand Championships. Defending titleholders Chris Owen (Grafton NSW) and Brent Rees (WA) will be competing.
Once again Brad De Losa (Lithgow) and Jason Wynyard (NZ) will be competing, having recently returned from Poland. There Jason won the Single competition in the Stihl Timbersports Championships for the seventh time. Brad and Mitch Argent (Qld) were part of the five-man team that won the Team Championships in a record 47.22 seconds.
The women will be represented by Jodie Beutel, the Women’s Champion of Champions 2015 and Overall Handicap Points winner 2015 Jillian Stratton, both defending their titles.
The Brunswick Heads woodchop carnival is regarded as the biggest carnival outside the Sydney and Brisbane shows. Descendants of many of the original organisers, competitors, volunteers and supporters continue to come each year.
There is no admission cost to the carnival and organisers encourage people to drop in and witness a few events.
In addition to the chips flying, the fish part of the festival occurs on Sunday January 10, when the Lions Club stages a junior fishing competition. Registration runs 6am–10am and the weigh-in is at 1pm sharp. More details from 0428 117 259.
Find out more at www.bhwoodchop.com.
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