Paddock party: Big crowd expected as Wandering gears up for October Weekend Campout extravaganza

The Wandering Weekend Campout is on again from October 20-22 and event organiser Alana Rosenthal said camp sites are selling fast. “The first campground that we released sold out in under a minute, that’s 170 sites, I thought I’d made a mistake on the website,” she said. “I went in to check as people were complaining that they couldn’t get in and that it couldn’t be sold out already, but when I went in and checked that’s exactly what had happened.” With 700 campsites available at Grassdale Farm, where most of the action is set to take place, the weekend is expected to see the population of the tiny town treble. “Being only an hour out of Perth it’s a perfect little drive for city people to come to the country to have a camping experience,” Ms Rosenthal said. The small town extravaganza will see paddocks transformed into party venues on Friday and Saturday night, and the Saturday ag show will coincide with the Wandering Fair which will be held on the town oval. The origins of the weekend extravaganza lie in a grassroots effort to promote the town and benefit the Wandering community. “Last year we bought the community a bus, that’s been our first investment into the community and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do next,” Ms Rosenthal said. “Most big places like Newdegate, Dowerin and Wagin have major events that put money into community infrastructure projects.” From a desire to fund the refurbishment of the Wandering Community Centre in 2020, the weekend has grown to become a significant and successful annual event that has seen the board behind the campout grow from five members to 15 and volunteer numbers swell. “The Lions Club are some of our main volunteers,” Ms Rosenthal said. “We also have a couple of caravan groups that come up from down south and the Narrogin Ag College helps us out with fencing. “Footy clubs come over and help us with all the big heavy stuff — there’s not too many volunteers, we have just enough.” With bar work, ticketing, entry point and traffic control requiring many hands, Ms Rosenthal said more volunteers were always welcome. To volunteer email volunteers2wcow@outlook.com or call 0427 883 595.