Gippsland

general contact tel: 1300 889 566
gippsland@dragonsabreast.com.au
or victoria@dragonsabreast.com.au

Dragon Boating in Gippsland

Over the passed two years the Waratah Breast Cancer Support Group in Gippsland has been working tirelessly to establish a Dragon Boat team in our region. and to become a Dragons Abreast team.  

Last year the Peninsula Dragon Flies gave us their pre loved Dragon Boat, and although it needed a fair amount of tender loving care, it has been a great start for the team.

We have been very lucky to have had a local community minded person Bernie Ryan who has been pro active in organizing the repairs to the boat along with The Men’s Shed at Paynesville.

The Mens Shed are group of retired men who have an interest in wood work and in particular wooden boats. We originally thought that we would try to repairing the boat ourselves, but after seeing all the work that was needed to be done, it would not have been achieveivable without their help. Parts of the boat had wood rot and needed to be cut out and replaced, it also had cracks and holes hiding under the old fibro glass on the bottom. 

We are extremely grateful for all the hours and the fantastic workmanship that these men have put into repairing our boat.

Our Dragon Boat was missing a head tail and a drum, but after some searching we were able to track down the missing parts.( Judging by the feathers that were caught up in his long beard we suspect that his head has been lurking in someone’s chook shed!)  

We have been very fortunate to have been donated the steel for the boat trailer by Blue Scope Steel in Traralgon and Kennedy Trailers in Bairnsdale are building us a trailer.

A group of community minded ladies from Metung “The Blood Hounds“who raise money for local projects such as ours, have kindly donated to us the proceeds of a fantastic fashion Parade held at Kings Cove in Metung. We are very fortunate to have this support from the The Blood Hounds, and the proceeds have gone toward the materials used to repair the boat, and fittings for the boat trailer.

Some of our team have competed with the Peninsula Dragon Flies in regattas held in Albury, and Canberra last year. Both were a lot of fun with just a small amount of competitiveness!

We have also been very lucky to be invited to spend a weekend in Melbourne training with the Dragon Flies last year. They have been very helpful to us, in gaining experience and insight into the sport of Dragon Boat racing. We are very fortunate to have support from such a friendly group of people.

In February last year our local breast care nurse Di Gibbs organized an exercise program in Bairnsdale called Prepare to Paddle Program. Prepare to Paddle is a fun exercise program for ladies that have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The program is aimed at ladies of all ages and of all fitness levels. 

This program is assisting women to regain and maintain extra upper body strength following breast surgery.

We meet once a week and have two vary enthusiastic trainers, Ann and Linda who work out our program for each session. It has been amazing just how our fitness levels have improved.

Most women in the group are keen to paddle in our dragon boat and others to help in an on land capacity.

We are looking forward to having our boat into the water soon, and hope we can encourage as many ladies, survivors and supporters as possible to come and have a paddle with us on the beautiful Gippsland Lakes.

You don’t need to be an athlete to paddle, all you need is a sense of humor, to enjoy the fresh air and good company and support of others who have walked the same path.

updated February 6, 2010