For the past 10 years Tony Price has been President of the Victorian Racing Pigeon Union (VRPU), which has 70 members and is based in Melbourne’s central north. Tony started racing in 1954 with his father and after playing football for several years and moving to Craigieburn, he resumed racing in 1984. On one weekend the VRPU was racing from Launceston Tasmania, 400km from the south and the George Whaley Memorial race from Mount Hope, 600km from the north. Tony had sent 5 birds to each race and incredibly his first bird from each race arrived only seconds apart to give him his most exciting pigeon racing moment. He was placed 4th from Launceston and 3rd from Mt Hope. Now retired, Tony worked for 26 years with Telstra as an operations manager, for 3 years with Motorcharge as state manager and 13 years with the ATO as a team leader.

Andrew Demidowski is currently the President of the Mornington Racing Pigeon Club and has been racing pigeons with the Victorian Homing Association for around 25 years. He has worked in various capacities within the Local Government sphere (7 different Councils) for 35 years in both the environmental and public health field. His expertise is in legislative interpretation and compliance, quality assurance and public health policy development and training. Andrew has qualifications in both Environmental Health and Business Management.In addition he has voluntarily worked for his professional organisation now known as Environmental Health Professionals Australia as Convenor Infectious Diseases, Vice President and President. He represents the Victorian Homing Association which has around 120 members.

Marc Tenaglia is the VRPB Treasurer and representative for the Western Pigeon Federation, in Melbourne's west.

Charles Hider was a member of the VHA when still at school in 1949, but began racing pigeons seriously in 1972. He is a solicitor and well known throughout the pigeon sport in Victoria. His legal expertise and understanding of pigeon racing have placed him in an ideal situation to offer expert advice to the pigeon organisations and fanciers of Victoria, particularly in planning disputes, something which he has done willingly for many years. Charles is a former State MP, representing Monash in the Legislative Council. The highlight of his pigeon racing career came in the mid 1990s when he won 5 Feds. He still works part time as an executive director of a medical research company.

Wayne Drummond represents the pigeon fanciers of Bendigo and is the president of the Bendigo Club which has 18 members. Wayne began racing in 1963 in the VHA, before moving to Trafalgar in Gippsland in 1977 where he was a dairy farmer. In 1982 he moved to Shepparton and during these years he raced intermittently depending on work commitments. Since 2005 he has raced in Bendigo. Wayne is a plumber.

Phil Jarvis started racing 25 years ago. It all started when 2 of his younger brothers threw a rock at a pigeon and broke it’s wing. While subsequently caring for the bird as it recovered, the 3 brothers all became interested in pigeons and their father then acquired some race birds for them. Phil represents the Central Highlands Pigeon Combine and is also the Combine’s secretary. The Combine has 4 clubs, Ballarat East, Ballarat West, Ballarat Invitation and Maryborough with a total of 30 members. Phil is an Engineering Technician at Federation University. His most exciting pigeon moment so far, has been winning the Adelaide Pigeon Club OLR from Marla 1000km, clocking at 6am on the second morning. The bird won $10,000 and would have been placed 2nd SAHPA (with these birds being let go simultaneously). He was there with some friends and saw the bird arrive which made the experience all the more thrilling. Phil is pictured here (on the left) with Geoff Johnson holding 1st & 7th Marla 2014 Adelaide Pigeon Club, both bred by Shane Tucker.

Darren Slade is a Technical Officer with the Latrobe City Council and represents the pigeon fanciers of the Gippsland Pigeon Federation (GPF) in south east Victoria. Darren has been racing pigeons for over 40 years and his father also raced pigeons. There are 4 clubs in Gippsland, of which the Moe and Morwell clubs are affiliated with the GPF. Some members of Traralgon are affiliated with the GMPF while others belong to the GPF. A fourth club, Heyfield, races independently. The GPF has 15 members, while Traralgon has 6.

Marcus Warton is a truck driver and represents the Geelong Pigeon Racing Association (GRPA). For the first 5 years he raced in Colac and still considers clocking his first bird home in a race, as one of his most exciting experiences. He learnt quickly and at one time won 4 races in a row in Colac. For the last 16 years he has raced in Geelong. The GRPA is made up of 4 clubs, Geelong City with 20 members, Bay City with 6 members, Geelong Invitation with 5 members and North Barwon with 7 members.

Having raced as a junior in Warrnambool, Geoff Parker began racing again in 2005 at his current residence in Shepparton. The GVPF has 30 members with clubs in Benalla, Shepparton, Wangaratta, and the southern NSW Murray RPC.

Gary Rayner started racing in 1974 in Wangaratta and after a move to Kyabram he commenced racing there in 1993. He has now been treasurer of the Kyabram Racing Pigeon Club for 14 years and is pleased to represent the interests of the clubs 21 members on the VRPB. Gary is now retired but has been a dairy farmer, worked as a plumber and with his brother established a building company operating in Echuca and Kyabram. His greatest pigeon racing thrill came in 2004 when in an 800km race from Port Augusta with approximately 300 birds in the release he topped the NDIC clocking on the day. Gary believes that one of the best things about pigeon racing is the terrific friendships that it has enabled him to form all around the country.

Jeff Howell lives in Wodonga on the Vic/NSW border and has been involved in pigeon racing since 1984. A former software engineer, Jeff currently publishes Australia's national pigeon racing magazine, The Australian Racing Pigeon Journal. The NDIC has 20 members with clubs in Albury/Wodonga, Corowa, Wangaratta and Burrumbuttock.

Eddie Szatkowski is retired and resumed racing pigeons in 2013 with the Victorian Pigeon Organisation (VPO), based in the central and northern areas of metropolitan Melbourne. He has been Secretary and/or Treasurer at the Werribee, Wyndham Racing Pigeon Club and the VPO since 2014. He is currently the President of the VPO and a long time member of Rotary. The VPO currently has 50 members.

Paul Sheehan started racing in 1976 as a junior in the Frankston Club. At that time Frankston was affiliated with the VHA but was an “out of boundary” club. The most exciting times that pigeons have given Paul have been winning his first race in 1978 while still a junior from Tabilk (about 140km), beating all of the senior flyers. More recently he won a 1000km event from Tibooburra in 2019, clocking about 3pm on the second day with just 70 birds in the liberation. Paul is a senior designer at Rural Projects Warrnambool. He is secretary of the Warrnambool Racing Pigeon Club and represents the fanciers belonging to the Warrnambool, Portland, Camperdown and Colac clubs, with a total of 28 members in Victoria’s Western District.