Welcome to the 15th Australian Hot Air Balloon Championships.

The 15th Australian Hot Air Balloon Championships has been completed.

Results:

1st Place - Paul Gibbs (NSW)
2nd Place - Sean Kavanagh (NSW)
3rd Place - Edwin Michell (SA)
4th Place - Andrew Robertson (NSW)
5th Place - Scobie Peart (VIC)

The top three places have earned the right to represent Australia at the World Championships in September 2008 , to be held in HofKirchen, Austria.

The event was an outstanding success with perfect weather for most of the flying week. The Organisers "stoked" that the event went so well, especially given it was their first year running the event.

The Organisers were really pleased and thankful to their volunteers who gave their time so the competitors could go flying. One of the organisers, Adam Barrow, said " we had over 50 volunteers with the event, all of them did an amazing job, especially as it was the first time a number of them had even seen a ballooning competition. Without them, the event would have struggled to get off the ground."

The Organisers were also appreciative of the local landowners who assisted the teams as crew, and also with access to their property. Mr Barrow said "The landowners have been fantastic!" The landowners have made the event even better with plenty of teams reporting back about incredibly friendly landowners who couldn't do enough to help the teams. "This is one of the things that makes the Benalla area such a great place to fly" said Mr Barrow.

The Event may be over but the local community continues to talk about the event and is keen to have the competition back again in 2009. The Event brought a lot of enjoyment to an area that has been hit hard by the drought, and in a time of the year that traditiaonally is quite slow for local businesses.