Toyota

In its biggest year on record, the 25th Annual Toyota Fraser Island Fishing Expo was a huge success, attracting large crowds and reeling in some of Australia’s finest fishing talent.

Toyota Ambassador and Australian of the Year, Lee Kernaghan, kicked off proceedings with an opening night performance celebrating the silver anniversary of this popular event.

The event continued promoting environmentally responsible practices at Fraser Island, with competitors and spectators encouraged to limit their impact on the Island and leave it in the condition they found it.

In addition to clean-up efforts prior to the Expo at the southern end of the island, Toyota worked with Conservation Volunteers Australia to help remove harmful weeds from the Waddy Point area, giving proud locals another reason to celebrate hosting Australia’s largest and most popular fishing expo of its kind.

The local community wasn’t the only winner, with happy competitors taking home their share in over $200,000 worth of prizes.

Winner Chris Dougherty drove home to Grafton in a brand new Toyota HiLux 4x4 Dual Cab SR Pickup V6 Petrol Manual valued at over $50,000, after winning the Major Random Prize.

Other winners include Toowoomba local Leanne Read, who went home with a CruiseCraft 500 Explorer with Yamaha F100d Motor and Trailer valued at over $45,000, and Glenwood local Gregory Ellis, cruising away in a brand new Toyota Yaris YR 3 door Manual Hatch worth more than $18,000.

Winner Wendy Surdonjic from Port Macquarie will soon be packing her bags for another holiday, after winning a trip to the Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge worth over $19,000, thanks to Hino.

Toyota’s Marketing Manager for the Northern Region, Simon Clarke, was blown away by the success of the event, and admits the weather almost blew him away too.

“The weather certainly posed a challenge towards the end of the event, but that didn’t stop our committed competitors from entering in more than 770 fish in the Catch, Weigh and Release category,” Mr Clarke said.

“Over 450 fish caught at the expo were measured and utilised for research in the Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries Long Term Monitoring Program, a vital step in monitoring the local fish stocks in and around the Fraser Coast region.

“As well as all the fishing action, competitors participated in more than 300 test drives of the Landcruiser 200 and the new supercharged V6 HiLux TRD over the course of the week, which gave everyone a great chance to try the vehicles in off road conditions,” he said.

The Expo had a total of 1500 competitors this year, with volunteers managing to raise over $15,000 for the local community and breast cancer research.

Toyota is pleased to work with its partners and has implemented a number of sustainable practices over the years.

Since acquiring the rights to the Expo in 1997, Toyota has worked actively with the Queensland Government and Queensland Parks and Wildlife to enhance the education of environmentally friendly practices for all competitors and visitors to the Expo, to protect and preserve the world’s largest sand island - Fraser Island.