Public appeal to name Deni ute on pole

The rural town of Deniliquin, famous for hosting the world's biggest ute muster, is calling for the public's help to name its iconic Ute on a Pole.

The bright red WB Kingswood, erected on a six metre pole one year after the Deni Ute Muster made the record books in 1999, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and until now it's been called, er, Ute on a Pole.

So the organisers of the Deni Ute Muster and the Deniliquin Council have called for submissions to name the town's icon. The winner will be named in September, just prior to this year's event on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 October, 2010.

"The competition has only been open a few days, but the word has got out already and we've received dozens of responses from all across Australia. In fact, some of the first entries came from far away Queensland,” said John Harvie, the general manager of the Deni Ute Muster.

Although Deniliquin is in NSW, it is closer to Melbourne than Sydney (4 hours versus 9 hours drive).

Located in the far south-west of NSW, it is about 150km north-west of the Victorian town of Shepparton and about 300km south-west of the NSW town of Wagga Wagga.

Deniliquin is regarded as the 'Ute Capital of the World' after it entered the Guinness Book of Records for the largest parade of Utes in 1999. That year, 2839 utes turned out.

Even though the event has since attracted more than double this amount of utes, the record still stands at 2839 as that is the last time Guiness World Records validated the ute parade count.

A Guinness World Records official attended the event in 2009 to update the figure, but organisers had to abort the ute parade – which winds like a snake for 3.2km in a massive paddock – because heavy rain the week prior, and scattered showers during the event, made the turf too soggy.

"It would have been a mud bath," said Harvie. "So for safety reasons we decided to postone the world record ute parade attempt. But Guinness World Records will be back in 2010 and we will go for a new world record then."

Instead, in 2009, the event made the Guinness World Records for the most number of people wearing blue singlets in any one place (2230).

In its early years the Deni Ute Muster injected about $6 million into the economy in the space of a few days, and the population of the town grew from 8000 to 18,000 in that time.

The event's highest economic impact to date was in 2008 when an estimated $13 million was spent in Deniliquin by visitors. In 2009, with attendance down slightly, the economic impact was estimated to be $11 million, or an average of $463 per visitor.

The event started in 1999 after local council members came up with the idea of an annual country fare to bring money into the community after a decade of drought.

The original event included wood chopping and live country music. Almost as an afterthought, a ute muster was included to broaden the appeal. When organisers were flooded with entries, the ute muster overshadowed the other events and has since become the main drawcard.

For the first event, organisers had to borrow $2000 from the chamber of commerce to pay for posters and pamphlets.

The Deni Ute Muster has delivered a massive windfall for the region, whose grain growers have suffered from the drought.

Deniliquin has the largest rice processing factory in the southern hemisphere. At its peak, the region produced 1.7 million tonnes of rice annually in the late 1990s; but in some years was lucky to produce more than 20,000 tonnes.

Deniliquin is still in drought although a couple of big downpours over the past 12 months mean the region is expecting a bigger rice crop than in recent years.

Post your suggestions to the Carsales Network by clicking on the 'Comment' link below and we'll relay all the entries to the event organisers. Alternatively you can email your entry direct to editor@australianautomotive.com

In the meantime, for more information go to: http://www.deniutemuster.com.au

Deni Ute Muster count
1999 - 2839 utes in one location
2000 - 2990 utes in one location
2001 - 3012 utes in one location
2002 - 3070 utes in one location
2003 - 3418 utes in one location
2004 - 4012 utes in one location
2005 - 6172 utes in one location
2006 - 6211 utes in one location
2007 - 6235 utes in one location
2008 - 7242 utes in one location
2009 - 7000 utes in one location (estimate)

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