The Cobar Yabbies, the Senior Men's Swimming Club, have officially been in the pool for 51 years but celebrated their 50th Anniversary on the weekend of 28-30 October.

''Last year should have been the 50th Anniversary but because of COVID it was not held, so it was actually the 51st Anniversary this year,"said John Carswell, the current Cobar Yabbies President.

"We were extremely happy with the turn out and the whole weekend couldn't have gone better. We had ex-members from Queensland, Melbourne, South Coast, North Coast. As many as the ex-members as possible were tracked down," he said.

Other swimming clubs from all over NSW also attended the event including Twin Towns, Gosford, Nelson Bay, Bondi, Cronulla, Maroubra, Wellington, Forbes, and Grafton.

Flooding prevented other clubs, like Lismore and Ballina, from attending the event.

Two of the inaugural members were able to attend the celebrations. Bob Clark is in his mid 70's and current Secretary of the Club and Frank DeFilippo in in his early 80's.

Both still reside in Cobar and Bob Clark still regularly does about a dozen laps every morning.

The weekend was kicked off by a meet and greet event at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club on Friday night 28 October, attended by around 150 people.

"The highlight of the night was all of the old records and events winners were displayed on boards, plus some old trophies with people enjoying finding their names," said John Carswell.

A swimming carnival was then held on 29 October Saturday afternoon.

Around 120 swimmers competed across 6 events, with 200 people at the Cobar Memorial Swimming Pool cheering them on.

"The Yabbies won the most prestigious event of the day, the Ten Man Relay, coming within 0.64 of a second of our nominated time," said John Carswell.

Seventeen elite athletes fine-tuned their preparations (aka the Cobar Yabbies) on October 25 at the Cobar Memorial Swimming Pool. IMAGE: John Carswell

 A Celebration Night followed at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club, including parodies of famous musical acts, presentations, a didgeridoo performance and - aptly - a yabby race.

"Yabbies were auctioned off, named after fallen and lost Yabbies, to pay our respects to those lost and gone before us," said John Carswell.

"Overall, $2000 was raised on the weekend and will be donated to local charities".

Finally on Sunday 30 October a hearty recovery breakfast was held at the Cobar Bowling and Golf Club, who were "very generous in donating space and food for the weekend".

The 50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner, held at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club. IMAGE: John Carswell

 Mr Carswell said connections were remade over the weekend and the Club was reinvigorated with "some old members going to start coming to practice again".

"It's about mateship," he said. "About blokes being to talk to each other and support each other.

"The swimming is nice. In today's society it is harder for blokes to be blokes and we provide a safe place to do that. "

"The club is starting to attract more 20 to 30 year olds who often don't have an outlet after they finish playing football, this is a place that they come," Mr Carswell said.

The Cobar Yabbies are members of the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) Swimming Association of Australia involving ex-servicemen 'as a result of the discussion between several of the Executive of the Limbless Soldiers' Association.'

In 1929 a swimming club was formed to assist the members whose sporting activities were restricted because of their disabilities.

These days the AIF Swimming Association is open to all adult swimming clubs, male and female, over 18 years of age and member clubs are scattered throughout the country.

As John Carswell told the Western Plains App, events are won on "how close you are to your nominated time – it is a handicapped event. This is more inclusive, as it means everyone can swim and everyone is competitive."