THOUSANDS of hungry south-west residents flocked to the 27th annual Wunta Fiesta’s Big Australian Breakfast yesterday.
Families, friends, workers and students formed a line snaking around Warrnambool’s Civic Green, waiting up to 20 minutes for their $2 serve of eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit juice and flavoured milk.
Wunta committee chairwoman Elizabeth Moloney yesterday said the weather had made for the biggest turnout she had seen in years.
“The good weather has brought a lot of people here,” she said
“It’s bigger than other years purely because of the weather.
“Last year we had about 1000 but we’ve well and truly topped that.”
The breakfast treats were gobbled up as fast as they were cooked, with most people stopping off for a cheap feed before work or school.
“The pancakes are always pretty popular but the eggs and bacon, you can’t go past them,” Miss Moloney said.
“We can’t cook quick enough.
“It doesn’t matter what you do — we got here at 5.30 this morning for the barbecues, there’s always a line up.”
Warrnambool couple Bryan and Jill Mair were among the crowds lining up for an early-morning feast, saying they had attended most years since it began.
“We like to come to be a part of Wunta,” Mr Mair said.
Warrnambool friends Sharna Westley and Mardi Rawlings enjoyed breakfast with Mrs Westley’s children Jai and Byron Keane.
“It makes us catch up,” Mrs Westley laughed.
“We’ve made a little tradition out of it,” Miss Rawlings said.
“Last year it rained but we still sat here in the rain.”
All proceeds are going towards the weekend’s festivities.
An eleventh-hour decision paid dividends for Warrnambool vet Tom Loughnan at the Wunta Fiesta’s annual Undie 500 yesterday morning.
The former Geelong man won gold after deciding to compete late Thursday night, receiving a three-month pass to Toned Up Training and Boxing.
“My housemate and I thought it would be funny,” he told The Standard.
“(But) it’s a bit early for it.”
The last-minute decision left no time for Mr Loughnan to dream up a prize-winning costume, with him running the race in a pair of faded trunks.
“I’m on my way to work so it was just what I had on,” he said.
The first girl home for the second year in a row was 18-year-old Kellie McLeod of Warrnambool who said there seemed to be less female competitors than usual.
The soon-to-be Ballarat university student ran in red lycra shorts and a white singlet.
“I tried to be kind of modest,” Miss McLeod laughed.
“I didn’t want to bare all.”
Watching the annual underwear race as a child prompted Miss McLeod to become a competitor for the first time last year.
“(And) the prizes are a good incentive,” she said.
The keen athlete said she had been running “forever”, with her favourite 400-metre sprint providing practice for the Undie 500.
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