SWD Restoration Group

This plaque is located opposite the SWD Restoration Group, 73 Grayland St.

The South Western District Restoration Group relocated from its home of 32 years on private land at Bookaar, north of Camperdown, to Rally Park on Cobden Racecourse Reserve in 2010.

The annual Cobden Vintage Rally was held for the first time on the current site in 2011. Exhibits and displays, the time-honoured tractor pull, catered meals and an auction are features of the rally program which, in more recent years, has claimed the Labour Day weekend as its own.

The SWDRG members preserve, restore and display a diverse range of antique and vintage items including machinery, old tractors, agricultural equipment, old tools, vintage cars, and steam engines. You will also enjoy the undertaker’s shop, radio-controlled model boats, the shearing shed, vintage cars, the blacksmith’s forge and much more.

Some of the collections are owned by the group and some by individual members who display them on the grounds in the rapidly-increasing number of privately-owned sheds constructed on the site.

Treasures to be found at Rally Park include two huge Robey steam engines, the Crossley and Ruston Hornsby engines – see pictured.

The SWDRG was officially formed in 1978 with its first president being local identity, Ron Jackson. Membership usually numbers around 130. For insurance reasons, members have to be over 10 years-old.

Long-term presidents have included Ray Morris,
Graham Cottrill, Malcolm Kempton and Brian Cockayne while Joan Madden, Nance Currell and Tom Wilson have served as secretary for at least nine years each.

Apart from the Vintage Rally weekend, visitors are welcomed on the third Sunday of every month, on occasions like Cobden’s Spring Festival in October and by appointment.