RELATED: Faces of the Bendigo Swap Meet
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A small town has moved into the Prince of Wales Showgrounds this weekend for the Bendigo Swap Meet.
About 1700 stalls have been set up at the showgrounds, filling every nook and cranny of the area with collectables, machinery and car parts, knick-knacks and rare items.
Bargain hunters hit the stalls early with some big ticket items being bought and sold.
The swap meet runs until Sunday evening with a lot more bargains sure to be had.
Veteran Vintage Classic Club Bendigo chairman Ashley Gray said is was amazing to see so many people buying and selling.
“There is people from all over Australia win the 1700 sites,” he said.
“This is our 41st year, so we have been going a long time. We grew from a handful of sites to this.”
While Mr Gray believes Ballarat has a slightly bigger swap meet (with 2000 sites), he said the vendors lied the social aspect of the Bendigo meet.
“I think Ballarat has the mantle (of the biggest swap meet in Australia). We would have more sites if we could but we haven’t go the space for it,” he said.
“For a lot of people this is a social outing. (Vendors) like to have the same site because they catch up with mates they haven’t seen since last year.”
A team of at least 300 volunteers helps organise and run the weekend.
“All the catering is done by service groups in Bendigo like Rotary and the Y Service Club,” Mr Gray said.
“We try to do that so the profits come back into local groups.
“It also takes us 12 months to plan, so we have already started for next year. People are re-booking for next year, so we have to get started.”
The Veteran Vintage Classic Club of Australia owns the swap meet and president Neil Athorn said there was always plenty to do.
“We had a little bit of rain which was good for us because it got rid of the dust and the cloud cover keeps people from getting sunburned,” he said.
“There are a lot of one off things to find here.
“It’s not always about car parts. One lady just bought retro light which may be the only one of those made.”
“But there are other things here to do with cars might not see often.”