“Basically, it gets down to support and finance,” organiser Max Frost said.

Established as a not-for-profit event to promote a new form of family-oriented fishing competition two years ago, funds raised from the carnival were injected back into the local community and the Ronald McDonald Family Retreat and The McGrath Foundation.

“Unfortunately, the cost of running the FFC has relied on too few and is far too great a burden to carry on. With the unfortunate recession we had to have last year, some of our major supporters also felt the pinch,” Mr Frost said.

“Our local government and tourism, while being very cooperative and helpful, still don’t seem to understand that these events bring a lot of tourist dollars into town and much more assistance is needed to ensure their viability, which in turn, brings back people and dollars to the community.”

He said the week of fishing, formerly held in March, was the way of the future to preserve our pristine local waterways.

“Funding is available for events such as the FFC, through donations to council from Marine Parks, who have donated personally and endorsed this event.

“It would be great to see some of these funds get back to what they were intended for, the promotion and awareness of the marine life in our area and education of the public and our local children,” he said.

“I do hope that there are businesses out there that may see the FFC as an opportunity to promote the products, or other government organisations that could assist. The Forster Fishing Carnival has proven to be a first class event, it would be a shame to see it lost, especially to those who gave so much to get it up and running.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Maconachie and all those who donated so much of their time and effort, much appreciated.”