Hard border see Coolgardie Day cancelled as they look ahead to 2021

People will have to wait until next year to celebrate Coolgardie Day, with the annual event postponed because of lingering uncertainty around COVID-19 restrictions.

Held on the third Sunday of September each year, Coolgardie Day marks the discovery of gold in the small mining town in 1892.

The event takes 12 months to plan, and last year attracted a crowd of about 20,000 people.

Shire of Coolgardie president Mal Cullen said the decision to postpone the event had not been made lightly, and organisers believed their position was in the best interests of the community.

“Given the State border is still closed, which restricts those people coming in from the Eastern States and the limited time frame for fundraising and being able to organise, it just wouldn’t have been feasible to continue,” he said.

Mr Cullen said big rides were usually transported to Coolgardie from the Eastern States but the cancellation of the Royal Adelaide Show would have made sourcing rides more difficult this year.

“We usually have all the big rides that you would otherwise have to travel to Perth to experience,” he said. Mr Cullen said the Coolgardie Day committee would spend the coming months planning for the rescheduled event on September 19, 2021.

“Definitely in 2021 we will be back again, bigger and brighter again, we hope,” he said.

Mr Cullen said the Shire had otherwise been “fairly sheltered” from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped to return to a state of normality in the near future.

“We have a fairly strong and resilient mining industry at the moment ... we are hoping to get through the next couple of months, working as a Shire and gradually reopening whatever facilities we can afford to reopen,” he said.