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SYDNEY SYMPHONY VISITS BATHURST ( August 2008)

On Saturday the 12th of July the Sydney Symphony Orchestra visited Bathurst for the Sydney Symphony Drought Relief Concert. The concert raised over $50,000 which went towards the drought relief programs of local charities - Anglicare, Red Cross, Salvation Army and St Vincent De Paul.

The Orchestra performing live at the
Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre

The concert was a well deserved morale booster for local farming families in the Bathurst area, who have battled on-going drought conditions for years. The audience of about 600 people enjoyed a night of world class music, thrilled by the sounds of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.

Special guest performers included the Orchestra's Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti. As well as soloists Michael Dauth playing the violin, Catherine Hewgill playing the cello, Matthew Wilkie playing the bassoon and Shefali Pryor playing the oboe. More than 60 Sydney Symphony musicians were flown from Sydney to Bathurst by two specially charted Rex Planes. Also travelling to Bathurst were two tonnes of musical instruments, including double basses, trombones and oboes.

This is not the first time that the Orchestra has held a drought relief concert, in the past they have played in Griffith, Broken Hill, Orange and Tamworth, each concert raising $50,000 to provide drought aid. Rex is proud to be a regional tour partner of the Sydney Symphony and we have been partnering with the orchestra since 2004.

GRAFTON'S OFF AND RACING WITH REX ( August 2008)

  Schibello bringing it home

Having 30,000 people attend a racing carnival, in a town in which only 18,000 people live is no mean feat. But these are the crowd numbers that the Clarence River Jockey Club achieved over the five days of the recent Grafton Racing Carnival. Highlights of the carnival, the Ramornie Handicap Day and the Grafton Cup were held on the 16th and 17th of July, respectively.

Rex was a major sponsor of Ramornie Day and had naming rights to race one on the day. The "Rex Airlines Jacaranda Plate" was won by Schibello.

  Rex Regional Manager Maurice Gahan
  meets the winner - Schibello

The Grafton July Racing Carnival has gone from strength to strength. According to Bradley de Martino Rosaroll, CEO of the Clarence River Jockey Club, this year's record crowd numbers prove that its reputation as the premier racing carnival in country NSW is well deserved. "On Grafton Cup day alone we had 14,400 people and on Ramornie Handicap day, which also featured the Rex Airlines Jacaranda Plate, over 6,700 people attended."

The event, the largest on the local calendar, offers a major boost to the economy of both Grafton and surrounding towns. With local motels heavily booked and restaurants and bars in the area buzzing with activity.

Mr de Martino Rosaroll is predicting continued success for the event and says, "It truly is an event not to be missed, book in early for next year and be a part of this great Australian racing tradition."

VIVA LAS PARKES ( August 2008)

Hailed as the 'night of nights' for the Inland NSW Tourism Industry, the 2008 CountryLink Inland NSW Tourism Awards was held at the Parkes Leagues Club on Saturday the 26th of July. The winners in over 16 categories were announced to an enthusiastic audience of around 250 people, who had congregated from all over the state for the Elvis/Las Vegas themed event. Tourism bodies from a number of Rex's NSW ports were represented at the awards, including Broken Hill, Lightning Ridge, Mudgee, Albury, Leeton and Sydney.

  Kenny Love of Temora Aviation
  Museum receives his award from
  Rex Sponsor, Maurice Gahan

MC for the evening was former yellow Wiggle, Greg McLeod, who delighted the crowd with performances of a few of The Wiggles' popular songs. Tourism NSW board members Mr Philip Hele and Mrs Ruth Fagan were also in attendance on the night as the minister's representatives.

The Regional Tourism organisations of New England North West, Central NSW, Riverina Tourism and Outback Tourism have collaborated since 2004 to conduct the Inland NSW Tourism Awards, to help promote and enhance tourism in regional NSW. Representatives from across all four of the Regional Tourism Areas were present for the announcement.

  Julie Rowse and Cristie
  James of Trentham
  Estate Wines with Rex's
  Maurice Gahan

The awards are an opportunity for operators of tourism businesses and attractions to gain an insight into their industry, their business, achieve recognition for their success and promote tourism within their region. Finalists of the Inland NSW Tourism Awards have the opportunity and are encouraged to proceed to the NSW State Tourism Awards and if successful, the National Awards.

Rex was a proud sponsor of the event, providing six return flights anywhere on the Rex network, which were presented as prizes to some of the winners on the evening. Rex Regional Manager, Mr Maurice Gahan, attended the awards on behalf of Rex, presenting awards to winners in two categories; Tourist Attraction and Tourism Wineries.

Temora Aviation Museum was a big winner on the night, taking out top honours in both the Heritage & Cultural and Tourist Attraction categories and also receiving an Award of Distinction in the Festivals & Events category. The museum is a unique tourist attraction, housing a collection of airworthy ex-military aircraft with historical significance to Australia.

For the second consecutive year Trentham Estate, a family owned boutique winery located on the Murray River in South-West NSW, was named Best Tourism Winery. Rex congratulates all the winners and wishes them the best of luck with their next step – the state-wide awards which will be drawn in November.

THE 'REX CHALLENGE' ( July 2008)

Over the weekend of 14-15 June, Tom Chesher from Flight Centre in Port Lincoln lead a two-day fundraising walk covering 36 kilometres of rugged scenic coastline, bush and long sandy beaches through part of the Investigator Trail in Lincoln National Park. The trek was dubbed the 'Rex Challenge'.

Tom is undertaking a trek along the 'Sandakan Death March' in Borneo later this year and used the ‘Rex Challenge’ as both a training session for some of the trekkers and also to begin the fundraising efforts to benefit the McGuinness McDermott Foundation, supporting kids with cancer.

The trek provided a great kick start to Tom’s fundraising, with $3,000 being collected. Rex was a major sponsor of the walk, providing airfares for the participants to travel to Port Lincoln from Adelaide.

The group donning their Rex regalia

TAFE RIVERINA INSTITUTE AWARDS ( July 2008)

TAFE Riverina held their Institute Awards function, Celebrating Excellence, in Wagga Wagga on 16 May. Warrick Lodge represented Rex at the ceremony, presenting joint winners of the Rex-sponsored Tourism and Hospitality Faculty Award – Perpetual Asante and Premrudee Khumnasaeng – with Rex flight vouchers.

Premrudee (Prem) completed a Certificate III in Hospitality (Commercial Cookery), proving her prowess as a national finalist in the 2007 Australian Meat Industry Council’s “Sausage King” title with her gourmet Thai sausage and has now realised her dream of opening a “Jones the Grocer” retail gourmet food franchise in Albury, with plans to expand into Wagga.

Perpetual (Pep), an International Student who arrived from Ghana three years ago to study in Wagga, completed a Diploma of Hospitality Management and a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery, graduating with Distinction. Pep will now begin an Advanced Diploma in Hospitality Management in preparation for commencing a Degree in Business Management next year as she works toward her dream of opening her own African themed Hospitality business in Wagga.

Rex’s Warrick Lodge (left) and Institute Advisory Council’s Dennis Toohey
(right) present Perpetual Asante with her award

Source: The Daily Advertiser, 21 May 2008

CEDUNA OYSTERFEST (October 2007)

Don Seneca (Tullie’s husband) made
a good job of his zinc

As an ongoing commitment to the community of Ceduna, Rex has once again thrown support behind the Ceduna Oysterfest Festival over the October Long Weekend.

The Ceduna Oysterfest Festival is a celebration of the oyster aquaculture industry, for which the area is renowned. The event runs over three days and Rex is involved with providing prizes and transporting entertainers to add to the success of the whole weekend.

Every year Rex plays a part in the street procession and this year was no exception. This year the theme of the procession was 'Beach Party' so the Rex float became the 'Rex Patrol', in a tribute to 2007 being the Year of the Lifesaver.

Sandi Watkins joined with Tullie Seneca and her team, who manage the airport turnaround as well as the local Travelworld office, resplendent in their orange and blue lifesaver caps, to give Rex Fridge Magnets and Rex Caps to the community lining the streets of Ceduna.

Thanks to all the team for getting into the spirit and even covering their faces in zinc cream…and special thanks to Kerry Stott for providing the SES 'rubber duck' to add the authentic touch to our float.

The ‘Rex Patrollers’ and their float

MORUYA JAZZ FESTIVAL (October 2007)

The Moruya Jazz Festival on the long weekend has been described as nothing short of wonderful. The weather was perfect and the whole town was buzzing with excitement all weekend as jazz fans mingled with locals in the streets and at five different venues throughout the town.

Rex is a consistent sponsor of the festival though this year especially, Rex Ambassador Max Kingston attended to fly the Rex flag, leading the street parade and drawing the raffle of which two return Rex tickets were the prize.

The street parade was voted the best ever. Led by Festival President Roger Bayley, Cr Fergus Thomson,
and Rex Ambassador Max Kingston, it entertained and delighted adults and children alike

Suits you Max! Onlookers were treated to a great display of vintage, veteran and other, well loved cars,
motor cycles and tractors

DIABETES RIDE ACROSS OZ (August 2007)

Warrick and son Angus participated in the Wagga fundraising and awareness event

100 HOURS FOR $100,000 BIKE RIDE (July 2007)

In late July, Rex was the proud supporter of ‘100 hours for $100,000 – Raising Depression Awareness’ fundraising campaign. The campaign’s bike rider, Eddy Kontelj rode for an amazing 132 hours and completed his ride more than 20 hours ahead of the Guinness World Record. During the week of Eddy’s ride the campaign raised over $7,000, which was a tremendous effort by Eddy’s committee, family, friends and the very generous people from all over Australia. The money raised will be used to help in raising awareness of depression, anxiety and related substance misuse problems. Accordingly contributions will be forwarded to beyondblue – a national, independent, not-for-profit organisation working to address such issues.

Guinness World Record holder, Eddy Kontelj, rode for an amazing 132 hours

PARKINSON’S NSW (July 2007)

On 4 and 5 July, Rex proudly sponsored the Parkinson’s NSW state-wide support leaders’ conference held in Sydney. With Rex’s contribution, many rural delegates were able to attend and network with others in the same or similar situations and this added greatly to the success of the conference.

TUNARAMA FESTIVAL (January 2007)

Rex again sponsored Eyre Peninsula’s biggest and most popular annual event - the Tunarama Festival, held in Port Lincoln, South Australia.

Tunarama showcases the regions best seafood, wine, art, music, people and surroundings. The picturesque foreshore lawns of Port Lincoln are transformed into a bustling alley of events, displays, stalls, sideshows and rides, with fun events, activities and competitions for everyone including the famous John West Tuna Toss Competition.

A favourite event for all the family is the Regional Express Street Procession, where local businesses, organisations and individuals enter colourful floats to parade on the Saturday of the festival.

The Rex float leads the way in the Regional Express Street Procession

ROTARY- DUBBO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CHRISTMAS FAIR (December 2006)

Wally Flynn and Maurice Gahan spinning the wheel

Wally Flynn once again co-ordinated for the third year in a row the Rotary Chamber of Commerce Christmas Fair in Dubbo. Wally took charge of “Wally’s Wheel” and this year the Rotary raised an excess of $40,000 during this period. The Rotary donated $6000 to purchase Christmas lights and also donated all the proceeds from Wally Wheel to the local charter well in excess of $30,000. Rex was also a main supporter by supplying the consolation prizes on the wheel.

The Rotary Club in partnership with the Orana Mall Market Place conducted a Christmas Ham Wheel to raised money to purchase Christmas lights to decorate the trees and Church Street with “Rex” supporting the event with their corporate gifts as give-aways. These were given as consolation prizes on the wheel. The Dubbo City Council installed a monster Christmas tree at Church St Rotunda and crowds turned up to see Santa who gave each young child sweets and the adults had a large variety of food outlets and kids rides to inspect. Every adult received a free ticket in the Rex competition, the prize being a return airfare Dubbo/Sydney with the bonus prize being a Rex travel case full of Rex goodies.

A great variety of entertainment was conducted, music, singers and Radio 2DU and Zoo FM broadcasted live from the fair for 4 hours. The Winner of the Rex competition was drawn by our own Maurice Gahan and Steve Cowley a past president of the Rotary Club Dubbo Macquarie.

AQUACULTURE TRIP BY TAFE SA (November 2006)

The careers trip by the ten TAFE SA Aquaculture Students based in Adelaide to Port Lincoln on 5 to 7 Nov was very successful. The trip was designed to enable these students to be very much aware of what is involved in aquaculture through out their studies. By giving them the chance to actually view different aspects of their studies.

It enabled the students to view aquaculture facilities that enhance their learning environment and gave them a thorough understanding of the different types of aquaculture operations that exist throughout South Australia and in particular in the Port Lincoln vicinity.

This trip was made possible when Rex offered two free return tickets and by discounting the other eight tickets to a reduced rate, enabled these students to be able to come and visit Port Lincoln. It is the generosity of companies such as REX that enables TAFE SA to be able to deliver quality educational programs throughout Regional South Australia.

The students viewed an oyster operation out at Coffin Bay, and also the processing facilities for that industry. They were taken out to a tuna and king fish farm out in Boston Bay. They were also taken through a processing factory that specializes in exporting Southern Ocean Rock Lobster, and were shown a land based abalone hatchery and grow out facilities.

HARDEN KITE FESTIVAL (October 2006)

Harden Fantasy Flight Festival was a Festival of kite flying held at the local Picnic Racecourse on Saturday 21 Oct. Rex merchandise such as clocks, FM radio, caps and pens were given away as prizes. The Festival had over 2,000 people from all over NSW, Vic and the ACT. The highlight of the day was the Extreme Kiters who demonstrated Kite Buggying and Land Boarding. It was great to have so many families, from grandparents to toddlers, all working out how to put a kite together and then how to make it fly.

BLOOMIN' TULIPS (October 2006)

Rex was a proud sponsor of the “Bloomin Tulips” festival in 2006 and to assist with the culmination of the festival on Saturday 14 October, Rex provided two scenic joy flights over the tulip farms and magnifi cent scenery of the North West Coast of Tasmania. Crewed by Warwick Paton, Robert Perram & Katie Clyne the passengers were treated to spectacular views and despite the poor weather, the crew were able to fi nd suffi cient blue sky and very good views over Table Cape. Bloomin’ Tulips is a week-long festivalof sense stimulating events celebrating the flush of spring colour in the small coastal town of Wynyard on the north west coast of Tasmania. This year’s event was themed “Colours of Wynyard” - to match with our Wonders of Wynyard tourist centre. The scenic flights were sold via the Wynard Visitors Information Centre, with Rex donating all proceeds from the flights back to the Bloomin’ Tulips festival. Burnie Airport Corporation’s Gold sponsorship of the festival clearly illustrates what Rex and regional airports can achieve by working together for the benefit of the Wynyard community. We also thank Mark Hatten and his trusty team at Rex Burnie Airport for their assistance and general coordination of the scenic flights.

OYSTERFEST 2006 (September 2006)

Once again Ceduna turned on the good weather and great Oysters in this celebration of their world famous aquaculture industry.

Rex was a sponsor of the 3-day event, with Megan, Sandi and the whole team from Travelworld Ceduna, (the Rex route agent), turning out for the street parade, which featured two baggage trolleys loaded with Rex and Travelworld balloons and lollies for the children.

It was then on to the serious business of the judging of the stein holding competition with the ladies and mens winners winning Rex tickets to fly to Adelaide, to compete in the same event held at the Schutzenfest each year.

BALLINA BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2006 (August 2006)

The aim of the Business Excellence Awards is to promote excellence in business (or community activities), reward those achieving excellence and to act as a social and networking event for businesses. A Gala Awards Dinner was held on Saturday 26 August 2006 at the Ballina RSL Club. Rex was one of the gold sponsors for this event. Maurice Gahan presented the award of the best Service Club which was won by the Ballina RSL Club.

WIN CANBERRA - FISHING AUSTRALIA (July 2006)

Rex sponsored three return flights from Melbourne to Mt Gambier for Fishing Australia (WIN Television Network’s premiere local fishing show) to conduct the photo shoot.

Rob’s weekly FISH’N’TIP written for the week of Wednesday 9/8/2006

I’ve been meaning to get down to Mt Gambier for a fishing trip for a few years now, and while Mt Gambier doesn’t register with most people as a fishing destination I am sure it will after you find out all about my big adventure down that way.

Mt Gambier is the largest regional centre in South Australia. It is a marvellous town with some awesome architecture along with the amazing Blue Lake. Blue Lake is spent volcanic crater and the water is as blue as you will get making it a favourite sight for locals and tourists alike.

For anglers Mt Gambier is the gateway to the Limestone Coast, a spectacular area covering miles of beaches, headlands, rivers and coastal lagoons.

Beach fishing is spectacular in this neck of the woods and unlike many parts of Australia beach access to 4WDrive vehicles is encouraged rather than banned. There are special tracks that go for hundreds of kilometres and an awesome balance between access and conservation is achieved.

Mulloway are a common catch in the area, with either beach gutters or rivers holding these fish depending on the seasons. I was excited to see that they are at the top of the local rules list which indicates how likely you are to catch one …

As much as I wanted to do some beach fishing, and I will return for this specific purpose, it was the deep sea fishing that I got to try first. The aim was to capture a unique Fishing Australia show and believe me we got more than we barginned for.

Port MacDonnell is albacore heaven.

Before I go on it is worth noting that Rex airlines now fly direct to Mt Gambier from Melbourne or Adelaide in a jiffy so gone are the days when you had a massive drive to get to there. I flew in via Melbourne and the coastal views during the flight had me drooling about the up coming fishing action.

See you on the water

Rob Paxevanos

Visit Fishing Australia to read the complete article.

THE SYMPHONY SOUNDS IN BROKEN HILL & JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH FOUNDATION - GALA BABY BALL (May 2006)

WAGGA WAGGA HOLIDAY & TRAVEL SHOW (February 2006)

REX THROWS OUT ITS NET AT THE TUNARAMA FESTIVAL (January 2006)

REX PROVIDES CHRISTMAS TREAT FOR COUNTRY HOPE FAMILIES (December 2005)

BLOOMIN' BEAUTIFUL IN BURNIE (October 2005)

CHAMPIONING MILDURA MASTERS GAMES (August 2005)