In excess of 15,000 people attended the free MildurAIR’02 airshow on Saturday, 27 April 2002. This was Mildura Rural City Council’s third airshow. Mildura’s unique tri state location drew crowds from south western New South Wales such as Broken Hill, the Riverland and towns throughout Victoria’s north west.
Airshow acts including the RAAF Roulettes, the Army Red Berets parachute formation team, Hercules C-130J, the Southern Knights and the Russian Roulettes flew in from across the country and, in same cases, the world for the day.
Council provided $40,000 to the Airshow and the full time expertise of its Event Development Unit.
Facilitator Julie Jewell trained more than 100 volunteers and coordinated an organising committee comprising Victoria Police, SES, air safety specialists, technical officers and commercial airline representatives.
The first Airshow in 1996 was held to celebrate a multi million dollar project to extend Mildura Airport’s runway to accommodate large passenger jets. Three years later MildurAIR’99 celebrated the restoration of the No.2 Operational Training Unit (OTU) and Air Museum.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon officially opened this year’s Airshow which had the theme, History, Heroes and Honour. Money raised from a gold coin collection on the day will go towards the ongoing development of the Air Museum and, depending on Council’s decision in the ensuing months, towards another free community Airshow.
