Weekend at Wellington - Saturday and Sunday

The reason for our visit to Wellington last weekend was to attend the Vintage Fair and Swap Meet.  We visited one year, probably twenty years or more ago, just to have a look, but have never had the chance to go again.  This was the perfect opportunity.

The schedule is a huge street parade on Saturday morning, followed by the Vintage Fair and Swap Meet on the Sunday.

I hopped up early to see the sunrise and was lucky enough to see a train coming across the railway bridge.  It was a very long train and they go very slowly over the bridge.

We packed ourselves up in the Caravan Park and headed into town.  Fortunately, we were able to park in the Showground, ready for the next day.  We were very pleased to even have power available, as it was very hot and muggy, so running the air con would be a nice bonus.

We were surprised to see lots of swap meet stalls already set up and trading, as we had been informed that we couldn't enter the showground until 2pm on Saturday afternoon.  We weren't going to set up then, as we wanted to enjoy the street parade and whatever else was taking place in the main street.

Time to go down the main street and see what there is to see.

The town band was playing some classic hits.

"Made in Wello", the local craft shop had a nice display of vintage items in their front window, including this bunting.

Cameron Park runs along side the main street.  It is well set out and maintained, dating back to the late 1800s.  I couldn't get over how tall these palm trees were.  They must be so very old.

A feature is the rather impressive war memorial.

Finally, it was time for the street parade, led by the highway patrol car, looking very colourful in its aboriginal art livery.

There were quite a few cute oldies.

And lots of Mokes.  This one was my favourite.  Apparently, they come every year from Sydney.

My Dad had a Holden ute identical to this when I was very little. I can only just remember it.

Mick's family had a Ford Fairlane like this, but in blue, when he was a kid.

I loved these Fiat X19s when I was a teenager.

The wagon set a clipping pace.

There were several tractors that had been on a Tractor Trek.

There were also several old trucks.

Finally, there were two steam engines.  This one was used many years ago to make the roads in Wellington, so it is nice that it has been bought by the local council some years ago.

"Sooty" is seen in several street parades around the area, but lives in Wellington.  They added a bit of coal to the firebox to make her live up to her name for the parade.  Later I saw her with next to no smoke coming out of her chimney.  She runs so much quieter than the other one.

After the parade, it was time to go back to the Showground and start to set up our Swap Meet stall for the next day.

It takes a bit of mucking around, but we got our stall all set up.  As usual, there are quite a few people wandering around shopping prior to the official start day.  We don't mind, a sale is a sale.  We just find it amusing when another trader buys something from us and then has it on their stall for a much higher price.  We have a chuckle when we see it on their stall, unsold, at the end of the day.

The weather forecast was for possible storms, and yes, a beauty came across.  It arrived very quickly and caught us all unawares.  We very quickly packed up anything that would be damaged by the rain and then started trying to cover other things.........then the wind picked up.  Mick quickly rolled up the awning before it was torn off the van.  There were gazebos flying and everyone trying to stop things be blown away.  All that setting up for nothing.  Oh well, that is how it goes.  It rained most of the night.

The following morning was very overcast, but dry.  Do we set up or not?  What the heck, let's give it a go.  The morning was overcast all the time, but the rain stayed away.  It ended up being a successful morning.

The event consisted of the Swap Meet, another section had market stalls and in the middle of the grounds there were the car, tractor and engine displays and other bits and bobs.  I'm not really sure what, as we never got to see that section.

We were watching the weather closely and the clouds got lower and lower...... and then another storm came through at about midday.  Fortunately, there was no wind this time.  Once again, all the things that could be damaged were quickly stowed and then the rest was moved into the van to be dried before being packed away in their tubs.  I suppose everything got a wash.  Fortunately, a lot of our things were china.

It wasn't worth unpacking that late in the day.  The rain certainly sent the visiting  public home.  It would have been disappointing for the food traders, as it was just coming towards the lunch time.

We had a few pieces of green depression glass for sale and several people came around with their blacklights, to see if they were uranium glass, which I could assure them it was not.  I noticed a couple of stalls did have some uranium glass at quite high prices, and I know it did sell.  As I wouldn't get to have a look around till later in the morning, I knew there was no chance that I would find any bargains......or would I?

I had a look over in the market section and noticed this little set on a stall.  It was the only stall over there selling old wares.  I asked the price, which was reasonable, and then got out my little blacklight.  I very quickly bought it.

Even with the torch it didn't glow a lot in the bright daylight, but I was confident it would glow.  When I had a better look at home I was very pleased with it.

A very nice addition to the collection, and the dealers missed it.

Once we were packed up it was time to head home, unpack the van and ute and get ready for another working week.  These little breaks are so enjoyable and we love learning more about the towns not too far from home.  The Vintage Fair was a good excuse.  Hopefully, in the future, we will have more of these little trips.