THE best of Portland and surrounds will be on offer this weekend with a series of special events sure to delight both locals and visitors.
There is plenty of action planned, with a new look for the annual Narrawong Mouth2Mouth event, as well as motor racing, ocean swimming and the arrival of a cruise ship in the harbour.
Good weather forecasts promise good crowds, with The Bureau of Meteorology predicting both Saturday and Sunday to be sunny, dry, and reaching temperatures over 25C.
The fun begins tomorrow, with up to 200 swimmers expected to take to the water for the second annual Portland leg of the Shipwreck Coast Swim Series at 10am from Nuns Beach.
This year the race, with options of a 500m or 1.2km courses, has been renamed in honour of local surf lifesaving legend David Tapscott, who passed away in March from prostate cancer.
Portland Surf Life Saving Club member and race organiser Roger Trewavis said they’re hoping for similar numbers to the nearly 200 entrants last year.
“A lot of the time it’s word of mouth with other swim clubs, we probably haven’t promoted it as much as last year but we’re still expecting good numbers,” he said.
“The fact that last year was good conditions and a nice swim will hopefully bring people back.”
At the same time across town at the South Coast Raceway on Madeira Packet Road, drag racers will be taking to the track for the first round of qualifiers in the South Coast 660, ahead of the eliminations running from 10am to 5pm on Sunday.
It is the South Coast Drag Racing Association’s first meet of the summer, due to wet conditions prior to Christmas, and more than 160 teams from all over Australia will converge on the track.
Then on Saturday night from 5pm, the Southern 500 Speedway in Heathmere is hosting their famed caravan race, a night that always proves entertaining. A full night of racing is on offer in various classes, with the caravan race to be the final event of the night.
Down the highway in Narrawong on Sunday morning, the Mouth2Mouth event will take place in a new guise as a recreational walk and kids colour run, rather than the competitive run it had been previously.
Participants in the 14km ‘classic beach walk’ will be dropped off by a bus at the Fitzroy River mouth to walk back to Narrawong along the beach at low tide, while the 7km walk course is a return trip from Narrawong. Registration for both walks opens at 8am at the recreation reserve, with the bus leaving at 8.30am.
Later on at 11.30am, a colour run aimed at primary and pre-school aged children will be held at the reserve, for a $2 entry.
A Rotary Club barbecue van with be on site at the oval, while registration fees and money raised from a raffle will go towards surf lifesaving on Narrawong Beach over summer.
Mouth2Mouth chairwoman Kathy Taylor told The Observer they have struggled to find the same level of support this year, and have had to cut back, but are expecting around 200 people to take on the walk.
“We used to have a run which was a competitive run, but this year we've just got the walk,” she said.
“The Portland Runners Club always assisted us with it, but because of people's commitments and things like that they are unable to help this year.
“Bendigo Bank have supported us, the Narrawong Island Holiday Park have got a voucher as a spot prize in the walk, and Tutt Bryant helped us out with equipment.
“Then there's a lot of volunteers, we have a raffle and it's all donated goods as well, so local businesses and individuals help out in that way.”
Ms Taylor says people are still welcome to run the course if they would like to, but this year there will be no prizes for the first to the mouth of the Surry.
Cruise ship
On Monday, Portland will get a visit by the Oceania Regatta, a 700-passenger capacity cruise ship which is due to dock at the Lee Breakwater at 8.30am after an overnight trip over from Kangaroo Island, before heading off for Phillip Island that night at 7pm.
Some passengers on the ship will take buses on various sightseeing tours around the region, while a community market will be run on the grass area near Nuns Beach from 9am-6pm for those that choose to spend their day in town.
The last ship to visit Portland was the 99- passenger MS Caledonian Sky on Boxing Day 2021, and the Regatta is the first large ship to come into Port since before COVID-19 restrictions put a halt to the industry in March 2020.
The ship is on a circumnavigation tour of the country, with a few stops in Indonesia as well; it left Sydney on December 12 and will complete its voyage when it returns there on January 16.
A spokesperson said the Glenelg Shire Council looks forward to the arrival of the visitors to Portland and the return of cruise ship tourism, and hopes to inspire them to return to the area again.
“Council Visitor Information Staff will be there to welcome passengers as they disembark, and to provide information on Portland and the wider region,” the spokesperson said.
“This is a great opportunity for us to show off the many and varied attractions on offer in Glenelg to entice visitors back to the Shire at a later date.”
