Who says a picnic table can’t go for a swim? Young tradie Brad Chaplin is floating the idea of a mini regatta on the Murrumbidgee at Jugiong this Australia Day weekend. Photo: Brad Chaplin Facebook.
Every Australia Day weekend, Jugiong’s local watering hole – the Murrumbidgee River – hosts a lively flotilla of swimmers, paddlers, tinnies, inner tubes and inflatable toys of every shape and size.
Quietly weaving among them is a sight that’s impossible to miss: a floating picnic table.
Part floating furniture, part impromptu river parade, the sturdy tabletop sits atop four bright blue plastic barrels, topped with a Travla beach umbrella and an Australian flag fluttering from one corner.
Enhanced by a splash of painted handprint from the kids who helped build it, an outboard motor hints at its river-going ambitions and, as it drifts along the river, it never fails to turn heads.
The table belongs to Brad Chaplin, a plumber from Young, who for the past three years has been launching the unlikely vessel over the long weekend, mostly for laughs, but there’s no denying its inventive spin on a classic Australian pastime.
This year, he’s nudged the idea a little further, floating the notion of a Picnic Table Regatta to celebrate Australia Day.
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Brad reckons if one table can float, why not two? Or three?
“It’s more of a just a thing to do,” he said. “More of a joke than anything serious. There’s no organising behind it; it’s just an idea I threw out there.”
Yet interest has bubbled up online, with Brad’s Jugiong Picnic Table Regatta Facebook page clocking up 25,000 views in the past couple of weeks.
Whether that interest translates to tables on water remains to be seen.
“There might be two, there might be three, or it might just be us again,” he said. “It might just organise itself over the years.”
His own floating picnic table was born in a shed, as many good ideas are, with a few mates and a few beers.
It took a single day to build, with help from their kids and before it ever touched the Murrumbidgee, it was tested on a small dam near Wombat.
“We did a couple of laps and decided it was seaworthy,” Brad said.
So far so good.
Brad, his family and friends have been heading to Jugiong for the best part of 10 years, and this quintessentially Australian invention is now a familiar sight to locals, but for visitors it’s a head-turner, and a talking point.
“It does tend to draw a bit of a crowd,” he said. “There are always people taking photos or videos of us.”
Jugiong, he says, is the perfect setting for Australia Day.
Close to Young, Canberra and roughly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, the village draws a steady mix of visitors over the long weekend.
Its riverside recreational grounds, which include the town’s showground, double as space for tents, caravans and campers, while the Murrumbidgee itself provides safe spots for swimming, paddling and launching small boats.
Shaded picnic and barbecue areas, clean amenities, shops, a very popular pub – The Sir George – and recently refurbished cafe, The Long Track Pantry, complete the picture, making it simple for families to settle in.
There’s also a strong social vibe as campers drift between sites, kids move between river and pool and evenings stretch longer than planned.
“The showground and camping area is an incredibly well-kept spot – a credit to the town’s advancement group and people come from everywhere,” Brad said, “then everyone just mingles.”
For him, mornings at Jugiong start early.
He’s often on the river by 5 am, quietly fishing before the campsite wakes and the river fills with swimmers.
“You get about an hour or so before the kids are up. Once that happens, the fishing sort of stops,” Brad said.
The Murrumbidgee in that stretch holds native species including Murray cod and yellowbelly, as well as carp, and – if you’re lucky – trout further upstream.
This Australia Day long weekend is shaping up typically for late January: hot, with daytime temperatures in the high 30s and the chance of afternoon thunderstorms.
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River levels are modest, with steady summer flows – perfect for swimmers, anglers, and, as Brad has proved, floating furniture.
In terms of the regatta, he is keen to stress he’s not an event organiser – there are no rules, no schedule, no start or finish line.
From Thursday to Monday, he’ll be out there floating on his picnic table boat and the more tables that join in, the merrier the river parade.
For anyone thinking of building their own picnic table vessel, he suggests keeping it simple: “Just use your imagination. There’s a lot of different designs you could come up with.”
Whether the Picnic Table Regatta grows into a proper event or remains a quirky curiosity doesn’t bother him.
For now, it’s about enjoying the river, the town and the long weekend – and giving Jugiong something unexpected to smile about.
