Club president Dave Fary said yesterday the key to its long-term survival was developing a core group of committed members and running grass roots events.

"It would be the fourth incarnation of the club that I can think of," Fary said.

"It would have been 1985-86 when the club first started.

"At its peak we had 80 or 90 members and ran the Victorian country titles over the Olympic distance with up to 400 competitors.

"If we can get smaller races up and going that's probably where we're coming from at the moment."

Fary said community interest was behind the latest push to reform the triathlon club and the catalyst for its first race next month was a fund-raiser for cancer sufferer Barry Warren.

The club is looking to build on existing committeemen Fary, Russell Hogan, Trav Greening and Rohan Creed and in coming weeks will look to attract members.

"It's really just a race committee in essence where we can say we're going to look at two or three races a year," Fary said.

"It may well be that we'll look at having training squads to get together with people who have common goals."

The club has scheduled the Warrnambool Short Course Triathlon for March 9 at the Hopkins River Bluehole, consisting of a 300-metre swim, 14km cycle and four-kilometre run.

"It's a nice distance where you don't have to be a super athlete to do it," Fary said.

Fary was a founding member of the club and has been actively involved in two of its previous incarnations.

"The last one folded two years ago after operating for two or three years," he said.

"The last time the Warrnambool Athletic Club stepped in and took it over.

"While we got races up and running it was just a bit hard because some of the committee people weren't that interested in triathlons."

After establishing interest through involvement in a number of sporting pursuits, Fary said the response to the new club was fantastic. "

Most people I've spoken to have said it's about time," he said.