A Blizzard comes to Brewarrina

Youngster from Brewarrina and district are enjoying a holiday activity few would have ever dreamed possible – pulling on a pair of ice skates and gliding across a fully functioning ice rink, right in the middle of town.

An ice-skating rink in the middle of the Outback is a feat, and for the company and for staff who have brought the innovative project to Brewarrina, it is definitely the furthest inland they have ever visited.

Making the experience even more remarkable is the background of the company itself.

It is run by one of Australia’s most successful competitive skaters, Sean Carlow, a national senior champion, a competitor in the 2003 Four Continents Championships, and the bronze medalist at the 2003 Merano Cup.

Sean has an illustrious skating pedigree – his mother Elizabeth Cain and uncle Peter Cain represented Australia in pair skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

“We are a very big skating family, and after competing we established ‘Stars on Ice’ which has now been running since 1998,” Sean said.

“We take mobile rinks all around the state, but Brewarrina is certainly the furthest inland location we’ve travelled.

“It’s amazing how straight those roads are - I have never seen a road so straight, and once you get out of Dubbo it just keeps going!”

As well as the challenge of distance are the sheer logistics of setting up a mobile ice rink in the Outback. The whole operation required a team from ‘Stars on Ice’ and a huge amount of equipment.

“The logistics are considerable, because we have to bring up generators and pipes, which came up on two semi-trailers and a tilt tray truck,” Sean said.

“Basically, we build a small pool, put down the refrigeration pipes and plumb all of that together, then put a refrigeration agent called glycol into the system and freeze it.

“The rink has safety barriers around the ice, but basically it is a fully functioning ice rink.” […]

Read more and see lots of photos in the printed edition of The Western Herald.

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