Classic Riders Club of Goulburn - Great Southern SWAP MEET 2026

The  Classic Riders Club of Goulburn held its annual Swap Meet over the weekend of 21 March 2026.  Here is a wrap up of the event to share with our members and friends, if you want to see the full report it is available as part of the club minutes for April.

On Thursday 19 March 2026  team members met to clean up and mark out sites in the Skillion, Peden and main part of outdoor sites at the Goulburn Recreation Area in preparation for the Swap Meet.  Bravely, Colin Jewell assisted marking sites while nursing an injury.  Signage was also placed in various locations around town directing people to the Swap Meet and the Electronic signage arrangements were made and implemented.  

Saturday 21 March 2026

On Saturday our Swap Meet Team met at 9am to prepare and then greet our site holders and their helpers.  Many site holders and helpers came from out of town and even interstate. 

The newly introduced entry form assisted in keeping our records accurate and will allow us to keep site holders well informed of future Swap Meets well in advance.

On Saturday afternoon the clouds came over with a storm, light show and small amount of hail, prompting some outdoor site holders to change to an indoor position.  Nothing seemed to dampen our volunteers or the site holders, all remaining positive and preparing for a great day on Sunday. 

Many of the site holders had arrived even before we arrived at 9.00am and some had camped on the Friday night.  

Moving Beans were on site from the afternoon on to provide coffee and snacks and this year Can Assist had evening meals available from 5.30pm.  Some stall holders ventured into town for dinner but most ate on site.

Many site holders slept on site but equally many found comfortable accommodation within town.  Those who stayed on site were happy with the arrangements and spent the evening chatting and enjoying each others company.

There were no overnight incidents and everything, other than a quickly fixed blocked toilet, went exactly as planned.

A very special thank you to Howard and Julie Kneebone from our club, who remained on site for the night to ensure everything went smoothly and to work out any issues that may have arisen.

Sunday 22 March 2026

Some of our team met at 5:00 am to open Gate 8 for traffic diversion and a Swap Meet Team Briefing held at 5:45am just prior to the opening. 

There were no traffic incidences or hold ups at the entrances, the site holders were well spread out throughout the area and some chose to use the overflow area for the displays.  

The CRCG Club Site was manned by our Founding member Richard Corbet, members Chris Thrower, Peter Grady, Andrew Holbery and Wayne Friend. All enjoyed catching up with old acquaintances and did an excellent job. 

The club was donated some rare Honda Elsinore parts which were sold at the CRCG site to a young enthusiast who is going to complete his project.

Site holders and viewers numbers were down from last year, possibly due to cost of fuel and concerns about its availability, however the result was better than the club were expecting due to the situation and our follow-up interviews with site holders showed they were happy and had had a great time.  In general it is important to remember that this event is as much a social one for the site holders as it is a commercial one.

Can Assist reported their food stall was so successful they had to do a runner 4 times for extra supplies and were absolutely thrilled with the roll up, pretty much sold everything.  All their profit and donations received help with cancer needs locally.

The second coffee supplier Baa Ram Brew Coffee Van sold over 200 coffees and were extremely happy and will donate $1 for each coffee sold to Endeavour Industries to support their disabled workers.

Our Swap Meet team stopped taking donations at 11am and there were still people coming in to see what bargains they could find.  Some sites had already begun to pack-up and our team took the time to have a much-needed break, have a look ourselves, conducted a debrief and enjoyed some lunch after the clean-up.   We took the opportunity while all together to take a group photo, with only a couple of our team missing. 

Overall figures were down a bit from last year but it was still a successful Swap Meet considering the current fuel issues.  We extend a huge thank you for the dedication of our Swap Meet team who volunteered their time to assist this weekend working tirelessly like a well-oiled machine, and without them it just wouldn’t have been possible. 

The report from the 2026 Swap Meet is available to view by clicking here.

SWAP MEET Team / Volunteers – Thank You

Janette Bailie, Don Baxter (Treasurer), Zac Brown, Richard Corbet (Founding member), Wayne Friend (old member), Robyn Gordon (Wilson), Peter Grady (Ride Captain), Andrew Holbery, Michael Humphries, Colin Jewell (Vice president), Laurie Jones, Howard Kneebone (Life Member), Julie Kneebone (Assistant secretary), Harry Lok, Ross Luff, Frank Millwood, Greg Moores, Brad Nichol (President), Ricky O’leary, Peter Orton, Soie Policarpio (Zyla), Bronwyn Temple, Rob Temple, Cherrie Thrower (Secretary), Chris Thrower (Events co-ordinator), Richard Wilson, John Zyla.

Some of the Feedback

Lots of positive and happy feedback was received with comments ranging from:

• Goulburn’s Great Southern Swap Meet is considered one of the five best to attend, thank you.

• Loved the new layout in the Peden and Skillion area – very generous with ease to drive in, set up and drive out when needed.

• Thank you for everything it was successful for us, and we would like to pre-book for next year in the same spot please.

• Enjoyed the location food, coffee, ice-cream and bargains, thanks. 

• Communication good and Swap Meet Team easily visible, very friendly and helpful.