Every year, a regatta is held in Alice Springs. Due to the lack of water in Central Australia, contestants have to carry bottomless “boats” trough a dried-out river. When the river did carry water in 1993, the regatta became “the only regatta ever cancelled because of wet weather”.

Henley-on-Todd Regatta

Competition at 51st Henley-on-Todd Regatta in August 2012

The Henley-on-Todd Regatta (also called the Todd River Race) is a “boat” race held annually in the typically dry sandy bed of the Todd River in Alice Springs, Australia.

It began – and continues – cautiously as a joke at the expense of the original British colonizers and the formal atmosphere of the British river races which continue today. Every year in the spring, around September, the town holds a mock regatta which large numbers of locals and tourists attend. Food and drink are sold at stalls, “no fishing” signs are put up, and the celebration takes all day. It is the only dry river regatta in the world; thus, it was the first regatta cancelled because of wet weather, on … Continue Reading (3 minute read)