Following the weather event that culminated in Wollondilly being declared a disaster region, Wollondilly Council and Transport Heritage NSW have jointly agreed to postpone the Thirlmere Festival of Steam to later in the year.
“This decision was not taken lightly, and has been made in order to respect the integrity of this well-loved event,” Wollondilly’s Mayor Matt Gould said.
“Whilst this is extremely disappointing for everyone, it does means that the deferred event will not require scaling back and will reflect instead, the grandeur of such a premier steam event for the region.”
An inspection of the festival site yesterday afternoon revealed the ground’s saturation level would not support the necessary infrastructure for the event, due to weeks of storms and flooding. Given many access routes to Thirlmere have sustained significant damage, this difficult decision was made.
“Our Council staff are continuing to manage road and bridge closures, landslips and significant damage to our road network and some of our community members are still cleaning up from the damage done to their properties, so by postponing we will make it possible to have a true celebration of the return of the Festival for everyone,” Mayor Gould said.
Transport Heritage NSW CEO Andrew Moritz said that the decision to postpone was made with a heavy heart, especially given the effort our volunteers and staff have put into preparing this event.
“We look forward to working with Council to determine a suitable alternative date in the near future,” he said.
For enquiries regarding tickets, please contact the NSW Rail Museum on 1300 11 55 99.
