Mudgee will host the National Historical Machinery Association Rally again next year, with the Cudgegong Valley Antique Machinery Club chosen to do the honours once more for the biennial event's return to NSW.
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Back in 2013, the CVAMC in association with the Australian Rural Education Centre (AREC), hosted the national rally that's shared around the states every two years.
Last year's installment was held in Murray Bridge, South Australia, and after the last time Mudgee was the venue, it was off to Tasmania, then across the Nullarbor to Western Australia in 2017.
The event brings together many of items of machinery, tractors, steam traction engine, stationary machinery, farming implements, and displays.
Given the success of the 2013 rally, Cudgegong Valley Antique Machinery Club president Brian Jones said that they were happy to do it again but didn't expect to get the call.
"It goes on a rotation basis and we only put in an expression of interest, and it went to Henty who withdrew from hosting it," he said.
"It was definitely a surprise, I had a phone call one morning that they were heading into a committee meeting and needed to know if we were still interested in hosting the event.
"They needed an answer there and then, so I said 'yes'."
On Saturday, the local club met with NHMA representatives at AREC, to check out the venue and start putting plans in place.
And while it's a relatively short turnaround compared to the several years they had to plan the 2013 event - it will be held on April 9, 10, 11, in 2021 - the club and venue are proven and experienced.
"We took a tour of the site on Saturday, explained a few things, and they were very happy with the location. Some hadn't been to the venue before and for the ones that had it refreshed their memories," Mr Jones said.
"A lot of the infrastructure we'd had done for the last event - like the big loading ramp - is all still there, and we won't have to go back and redo any of it. And we'll be able to do some things differently to improve, because we've learned from the last time."
He added that hosting the event also benefits the local club and helped give the community organisation a home.
"It's a huge financial advantage to us, we've done several things within the club since then, one of the major ones would be building the new club shed on the AREC site," he said.
"So it's something that relieves that financial burden."
