Orange’s Colour City Dragons Boat Club has marked hosting the Western Region Dragon Boat Regatta at Lake Canobolas, Orange on Sunday, November 3 with a win in the women’s 200-metre event.

The Western Region Boat Regatta attracts teams from across the area’s boundaries.

For dragon boat racing, the Western Region extends south to Wagga Wagga, west to Dubbo, north to Narrabri and east to the Blue Mountains and also includes clubs from Mudgee, Orange, Bathurst, Parkes and Forbes.

Sydney clubs the Pacific Dragons and Sydney Tsunami also attended the Western Region event held in Orange.

Races held included the women’s and men’s 200m, the mixed 200m and the popular 100m dash for cash and the DA (Dragons Abreast) challenge.

Hosts the Colour City Dragons won the women’s 200m event.

Sydney’s Pacific Dragons had three wins Pacific Dragons (men’s 200m, mixed 200m and 100m dash for cash).

The DA Penrith team won the 200m DA (Dragons Abreast) Challenge.

Teams compete in Dragon Boats, which are large canoe-like vessels fitted with ornately carved dragon’s heads and tails.

Teams have as many as 20 paddlers and a drummer and a sweep.

The drummer is the individual keeping the rhythm and pace for the team and the sweep steers the boat.

Dragon Boat Racing is supposed to have begun more than 2000 years ago on the banks of the life-sustaining rivers in the valleys of southern China as a fertility ritual thought to bring good luck to the coming crop season.

Its origins at Orange stem from the Dragons Abreast group of women who were battling breast cancer and were seeking an alternate sport they could compete in.

Now, the Colour City Dragons Boat Club in Orange has almost 70 members, ranging in age from 11 up to 80 years.

June Bennett, a member of Colour City Dragons Boat Club and Western Region Dragon Boat Regatta co-ordinator, said the 2024 event was a great success.

“Lake Canobolas looked spectacular and we had a lot of positive feedback,” June said.

Lake Canobolas had last hosted the event in 2022.

The Western Region Dragon Boat Regatta switches venues each year and is also held at Cudgegong Waters near Mudgee, the 2023 venue, as well at Lake Albert in Wagga Wagga and Bathurst’s Ben Chifley Dam.

Orange currently has two dragon boat clubs – the Colour City Dragons Boat Club and Pinnacle Dragons Orange Boat Club.