General News
23 March, 2026
In the frame to go the distance
LOOKING forward to the first Dimboola Dash on April 12 is organiser Brian Haddy, with a short planning meeting last week on-site with Hindmarsh Shire Council officers to sort out some of the finer points of the geographical arrangements for the event, “basically to make sure that runners and walkers have a really good experience”.
The event will be held on the Wimmera River Discovery Trail, following on from the successful Horsham Running Festival held in mid-September, and offers a range of distances – marathon, half marathon, 10 kilometres, 5km and a free 2km Kids’ Dash – the last three with the option to walk.
Walking along Old Weir Lane behind the library and into Nine Creeks Reserve – Brian, along with assistant, Dean Mortimer, met with HSC economic development and tourism manager, Mark Fletcher and tourism officer, Jeff Woodward, to map out everything from traffic separation and setting the markers for various distances.
“The marathon is easy (to explain), because it's out to Lochiel Rest Stop, and back and out, and back and out, and back – so three loops, if you like,” Brian said.
“Others are a bit more complicated – so the half marathon is out and back, and then out three and a half (kilometres) and back.
“5km is obviously two and a half out, two and a back –10km, five out, five back – so there's a fair bit of logistics and planning to go into making sure we’ve got everything right in terms of distances.
“We're (also) talking about how we plan the start and finish area and talking to land holders and others.”
He said it was great to know the community was stepping up to make the event a success.
“(The) Progress Association, the Lions Club, are going to be helping out with some volunteers,” Brian said.
“The Imaginarium is a sponsor of the event, and the council is sponsoring the event, so it's making sure that all the ducks line up in a row.”
Mr Fletcher said HSC was thrilled to be involved.
“From the shire’s perspective, it's great to see an event like this coming to town,” he said.
“We've got the local holiday park here, so there'll be quite a few people staying in town over the weekend and with that … the economic benefit and flow-on of people being in town, shopping in town, having a look at what the town's got to offer.
“(It) also flows on to future visitation as well, (with) people coming back to experience the town a little bit more and see what the region has to offer.”
He said the project also helped with the shire’s ability to work on other special events.
“We're working with the organisers to assist them get the first event up and running, so it's great for us to be involved in that,” Mr Fletcher said.
“But I guess the other thing is part of the work that we're doing for the council plan and strategies is trying to encourage more events to be held in the shire – and again, it's for that economic benefit, the return visitation, down the track.”
Mr Woodward said the event was also a great vindication of the work done on the new trail.
“That happened early last year, and I was involved with that from the start,” he said.
“So it's really good to see an event, because we planned it to be a good spot for some running events or stuff like that, and it's good to see that actually coming about.
“Hopefully (it will) help put the trail on the map a bit as well.”
Brian said HSC had been “fantastic” and “I sense a real sense of excitement in the town”.
“I came to the Steampunk Festival last year and had that sense of community spirit in Dimboola, and that's why I decided to put on this run here,” he said.
“This is the first Dimboola Dash. We've got 160 or so signed up so far. I think we'll probably get to 200 on the day, which for a first-year event is pretty good.
“Hopefully we can build on that in future years and build it up to three, four, five hundred.”
Held on Sunday, April 12, more information can be found online at dimbooladash.au.