![Bob Forde, Rob Glass, Lindsay Florence and Graeme Sutton at the February 2022 Ballarat Swap Meet. Picture by Luke Hemer. Bob Forde, Rob Glass, Lindsay Florence and Graeme Sutton at the February 2022 Ballarat Swap Meet. Picture by Luke Hemer.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/177877894/0eecfe4f-38db-455e-85eb-16da84fd86f3.jpg/r0_280_5472_3369_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
All the Ballarat Swap Meet wants for Christmas is a new home.
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The team behind one of the region's biggest annual events has released a wish list for the venue it hopes to use for at least the next five years.
The 2023 event was called off earlier this month after the area the committee was eyeing off became flooded - and there was no chance of bringing it up to standard by February.
Chair Lindsay Florence said the site would ideally be a reasonably grassed, reasonably flat, well-drained area of between 35 and 45 hectares.
He was also keen for it to be as close to Ballarat as possible.
"We are open to discussion, but the further from ballarat we get, the harder it becomes for our volunteers in Ballarat to get out there," Mr Florence said.
"We've had people ring up suggesting Carisbrook or Bendigo, but we would look at Ballarat first.
"We did start talking to the Ballarat A and P Society about the showgrounds, but they just don't have the land - although they have given us some very good contacts in the farming community."
The committee said the site would also need a site without internal fencing - and the group would need access to it at least 10-weeks before and three-weeks after the event.
It would also need access to mains water, truck-friendly bitumen roads and an entrance at least 35 metres to allow for any evacuations.
Once secured, each row of stalls would need internal roads at least 6 metres wide to allow for rubbish trucks and emergency vehicles.
![Until now, the Ballarat Swap Meet has been held next to the Ballarat Airport - pictured in February - but the land has now been taken over over for a State Government project. Picture by Wayne Rigg. Until now, the Ballarat Swap Meet has been held next to the Ballarat Airport - pictured in February - but the land has now been taken over over for a State Government project. Picture by Wayne Rigg.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/177877894/356a6720-519e-4af8-8f9d-8f02a864c38e.JPG/r0_0_2790_4185_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Our aim at the moment is to get the word out there," Mr Florence said.
"We'll start the dialogue as soon as possible.
"For the February 2024 event we need to have a venue confirmed by August at the latest.
"If we're at a new site, we have to get started early on getting it set up.
"We'll talk to landowners, farmers, anyone...
"There may even be land out there owned by a developer who won't be touching it for five or more years."
Mr Florence said compulsory traffic management plans and certificates of occupancy would take some time to organise and they were keen to lock in something soon.
The swap meet usually draws 11,000-12,000 people a year.
It peaked in 1999 with an estimated 45,000 visitors.
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