Bundaberg Port Marina partners with Down Under Rally for 2016

The official Down Under Rally Vessel - Songlines John Hembrow

Bundaberg Port Marina © John Hembrow

Some of the advantages the Port of Bundaberg and the Bundaberg Port Marina have over other destinations that were considered are;

• The Port of Bundaberg is the closest Australian Port of Entry from New Caledonia thus reducing passage time and the risk of participants encountering adverse weather conditions on route.

• The Port of Bundaberg offers, all-weather, deep-water access, with much less likelihood of encountering concentrated shipping traffic on approach to the port than many of the other Queensland and New South Wales ports of entry.

Bundaberg Port Marina offers visiting yachts a modern well maintained marina, the largest dry storage facility on the East Coast of Australia, a wide range of marine service professionals on site and very competitive rates. The marina also provides its patrons with free WIFI, Free courtesy bus and management and staff that have many years of experience and understand the needs of visiting international yachts and their crews.

2015 Down Under Rally Welcome Week © John Hembrow

Geoff Beyer, manager of the Bundaberg Port Marina for the last 15 years has commented by saying;

“The Management and staff of the Bundaberg Port Marina are excited to be the Official Marina Partner of the 2016 Down Under “Go West” Rally.

It has been three years since the last event of this kind has been offered with the Port of Bundaberg as the destination. For several years, prior to the cessation of the previous rally that ran into Bundaberg, the Port of Bundaberg had earned the enviable reputation amongst the international cruising community as “The premier port of entry into Australia”. The 2016 Down Under “Go West” Rally is a fantastic opportunity to regain this recognition.

2015 Down Under Rally Welcome Week © John Hembrow

The Port of Bundaberg is in our onion, is the perfect destination for the rally as it provides the participant’s with modern facilities and an affordable convenient location to base themselves whist they explore and enjoy all our “land down under” has to offer.

It has been our past experience that the economic benefits that these important visitors bring to our local communities and businesses are significant and for this reason we encourage other business who stand to benefit from the revenue that these visitors generate to also “come aboard” and support the Down Under Rally.

A second rally, The Down Under “Go East” Rally has also been added to the 2016 Down Under Rally schedule. The Down Under “Go East” Rally departs Australia from Southport on the Gold Coast early in June with Port Moselle, Noumea, New Caledonia as the rally destination.

John Hembrow, Down Under Rally director and his wife Leanne, will participate in the “Go East” rally to New Caledonia on their Catamaran “Songlines”. They will then continue onwards to Fiji where they will begin to encourage international yachts that arrive in Fiji to join them on the “Go West” rally to Australia.