2008 - ‘The Year of the Camp Oven’

Not officially the year of the camp oven, Australian Camp Oven Festival organisers believe it has to be close.

Cementing its position as a major feature on the events calendar in Queensland, the Australian Camp Oven Festival enjoyed yet another successful Festival on October 4th & 5th.

The proud winner of the MacAir Airlines Events and Tourism Award at the Queensland Regional Achievement and Community Awards, and listed in the RACQ top ‘150 Must Do’s’ in Queensland, the Festival was recognised for its social and cultural success and its contribution to regional community.

Of course none of this was possible without the 7000 wonderful visitors who came to Millmerran to enjoy a feast of camp oven food whist entertained by bush poetry, bush ballads, and country music. Country music singers entertained all weekend while the bush poets delighted the morning crowds. Visitors tucked into camp oven food cooked in more than 65 camp ovens, fuelled by some 20 tonne of old wooden fence posts donated from around the district.

27 cooks used 500kg of SR flour to produce about 1,000 dampers while hungry festival-goers devoured over 1,500kg of mince, diced steak, corned meat and pork cooked into pies, fritters, camp oven stews, curries, shepherds pies and roasts, and all served by around 50 volunteers.

For others, the chance to partake in Billy Boiling Speed Tests, Damper Throwing, Camp Oven Cooking Schools and more while wandering around a superb array of demonstrations, stalls and pavilions had people begging to book campsites for 2010.

Bookings will be taken from February 2010.

Congratulations to “Hotshins” of Highfields who won the coveted Grand Champion Camp Oven Cooking Competition, ‘The Baitlayers’ who came out on top in the popular Mitre 10 Handy Signature Dish and to Ryan Phelan for throwing a record breaking throw of 30.23m to take home the Damp Throwing Competition prize.

2010 is already shaping up to be a colossal event with new demonstrations;
attractions and events in place so:

'Lets cook up a feast again in 2010'