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July 12, 2006
Bird sale for rescue helicopter
BIRD lovers gathered in the hundreds for the Inverell bird sale at the Town Hall on Sunday to raise money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Inverell support group.
And the president of the Inverell support group Frances germany-Medway said bookings have already poured in for next year's sale with sellers saying how pleased they were with the organisation of the sale.
She said the Town Hall was filled to capacity with more than 600 people there, including buyers and sellers.
"When the doors opened at 10am about 200 people, mostly buyers were queuing outside the hall," Mrs Germany-Medway said.
"We are now in search of a larger venue as the Town Hall will not be big enough next year.
"We knew it could be good, we knew it should be good, but we didn't know it would be quite the rating success that it was."
Although a final figure of the amount raised for the support group has not been determined, the group should have an idea of the amount in the coming days.
Many people took advantage of the catering service and the cost of birds varied in price from $5 to $9000.
"The most expensive was from the parrot family," Mrs Germany-Medway said.
She added that buses came in from visiting aviculture clubs and they also visited local aviaries.
Buyers travelled from as far as Townsville, Orange, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and sellers came from throughout the North West and from well into Queensland.
"We were thrilled," she said. "It was certainly a very successful day for the helicopter."
Posted by sue at July 12, 2006 12:18 PM
Comments
Birds that are sold through fairs like that get so stressed. It also is a good way of spreading many germs. Eventhough it appears to be for a good cause, this story saddens me.
Posted by: Maggie at July 12, 2006 07:40 PM
it saddened me too maggie. the mindset seems different there.. I mean when you have cockatoo's flying around and considered pests!
There have been some bird clubs in the US that have done this, word got around, and the lists got it stopped.. it's a small world the internet.
Posted by: sue at July 15, 2006 08:41 AM