LUXURY $10,000 PIGEON HOTEL

THE STORY OF THE SAHPA PIGEON TRANSPORTER

WITH THANKS FROM RUSSELL SOMERVILLE & JACK BERGIN

One of the most discussed topics among pigeon flyers of the SAHPA is that of our transporting unit.  Often one hears the cries of it’s too big or the opposite we need to fill it up to make it viable.  Well despite the differing views people have on the unit, it has served us very well over the last 27 years even with our declining membership at present time.  Lets go back to where it all started the year 1973 and an article which appeared in the Adelaide Advertiser upon our state of the art “pigeon hotel” and give our flyers of the year 2000 some insight on its origins.

A new $10000 racing pigeon transporter-regarded by it’s designer as one of the most unique units of its type in the world, has taken to the roads for the 1973 season of the SA Homing Pigeon Association.

It is the brainchild of 50 year old Jack Bergin of Gawler.  It is a self-contained “luxury hotel” for racing pigeons, with lighting, heating and cooling systems of it’s own and an onboard feeding and watering facility.  The transporter, which is used to carry race birds to racepoints of up to 700 miles in distance, has taken nearly 3 months of continuous work to complete.  The liberation of racebirds is estimated to take no longer than 27 seconds.  Up to 10000 pigeons can be released in this time.

Jack Bergin is a familiar figure in local and interstate pigeon racing circles, and is himself a leading racing pigeon owner.  Each week he transports thousands of pigeons on training tosses for metropolitan owners.  In the past seven years Jack estimates he has released more than a million birds.  This has enabled him to incorporate many revolutionary ideas into this new transport.  He knows, more than most, what is best suited for South Australian race conditions.

The transporter is made up of two sections which have a combined length of 36 ft.  For races they are loaded onto a semi trailer and pulled by a prime mover.  Completed the units stand 13ft in ht and 8 ft in width.  Birds are housed in bays which measure 6ft x 3ft x 10 inches high.  There are 108 of these bays, 54 on either side of the transporter and it is nine bays high.  A walkway down the centre of the unit enables the release officer to feed and water birds in each bay individually.  The water is tapped by hose from six water tanks which have been built into the roof of the unit.  One ton of water will be carried in each race.  A large feed hopper is located at the front of the vehicleand this contains one third of a ton of wheat and peas.  Fully loaded the unit carries about four tons of pigeons and the units themselves have a total weight of four tons.

During construction Jack was aided by another Gawler identity, John Fenton 42 and his son Lee 20.  Together they tailored the unit into a working transporter, ironing out small and major problems which arose during building.

Probably the most striking feature incorporated in the unit is the method of release.  It uses 12 roller blinds, six on either side of the unit.  These are winched from bottom to top simultaneously by two people at either end of the unit.  Birds file out layer by layer from both sides of the transporter.

For the long distance North races, half the unit can be transferred direct to a flat top railway truck in about 10 minutes.  With the number of race birds getting less because of the distance they are still far from crowded.

Loading time of the transport is expected to halve that of recent years, in which 70 lb hampers of race birds had to be stacked on the semi trailer one by one.