Dubbo gets behind Tie Dye Project as Australian Diamond netballers praise the community

The Sydney Swifts, Giants and a handful of Australian Diamond netball players created 2000 tie-dyed shirts and 250 netball bibs over the weekend, while also attending netball coaching clinics and enjoying a night out with locals.

Australian Diamond and Tie Dye Project creator Amy Parmenter said she "absolutely loved Dubbo".

"I am obsessed with Dubbo, it was amazing, everyone was so generous and got around it. I felt like I met half of Dubbo," she said.

Netball fanatic and cancer survivor Molly Croft was one of the drivers behind bringing the girls out to Dubbo, wanting to show off her home town to the netballers who had gotten behind her.

"So many amazing local legends came out and you can tell how loved Molly is within the community," Parmenter said.

With perfect weather, and sleeping in a swag for the first time, Parmenter said coming to Dubbo was a "perfect" experience.

"I think we had a few people watching out for us from above, making it the best weather possible," she said.

"Saturday was so hot and Sunday was windy and had it been windy on the Saturday it would have been hard to tie-dye but it was windy when we needed everything to dry so it was just perfect."

The tie-dyed t-shirts are currently on sale and are quickly selling out.

"We are trying to sell them out before Christmas, we're probably about half way sold though, so if people want them they're going to have to get in soon," she said.

"Hopefully people will start looking for Christmas presents now. It would be the perfect Christmas present."

Currently, the group has raised close to $40,000.

"Every dollar is being matched by the Kids Cancer Project, so it's technically nearly $80,000 so far which is awesome," Parmenter said.

The goal is to raise $100,000, so when matched, they will raise a collective $200,000 for the cancer research project which is focussing on a clinical translation of CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of sarcoma.

The netball bibs won't be sold until 2023, so residents are asked to keep an eye out when they go on sale.

For the projects sixth year, Parmenter believes they are on a roll of creating well loved shirts.

"Most years we have some where I'm like 'Oh can't sell that, it looks dodgy', but this year I think we've got enough people that have done it before," she said.

"I've got my tie-dye crew that know what they're doing now and they know the systems and they'll tell people when they're not doing well. We've got a couple of brown ones but that's to be expected but most are amazing."

Trying to choose one for herself has been quite the challenge.

"I keep changing my mind because they are all so good and I can't decide and I love them all," she said.

"I make everyone study the colour wheel before they come because so many colours make brown and that's not a good look on the t-shirt."

With more than 20 netballers in attendance, Parmenter said they all had an amazing time in the region.

"It's funny how things like this can bring teams together, we had girls from three different teams show up and everyone's sitting next to each other and having a good chat or are on the dance floor together, it was so good," she said.

The Swifts who showed up on the Sunday, were unfortunately delegated to folding the t-shirts after all the tie-dying was completed on Saturday.

"They were folding for hours, I felt so bad but they were all so good, they were amazing," she said.

The netball clinics went off without a hitch, with hundreds of young netballers getting coaching sessions by the Swifts and The Giants.

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"We had so much support from Dubbo Netball Association and they put on a barbecue and Boost gave the girls vouchers, it was so good," she said.

"When would that happen in Dubbo? You have 20 elite netballers, it's so cool. It's awesome."

As for what's next for the Tie-Dye Project, Parmenter said trying to sell the 2000 shirts was the first mission before organising next years event.

"I usually do this in the off-season, trying to juggle it with netball and university is way too hard, so we have a few months to decide, but we might have to do the Tie Dye on Tour every second year," she said.

"It was amazing but for everyone to drive 10 hours in one weekend is a massive effort and they had a great time, so maybe it is an every second year thing."

Parmenter said she was extremely grateful that everyone from Dubbo showed up.

"I definitely want to go back there because it was just awesome, everyone got around it and everyone that could come barely paid for anything because it was just so well supported so a big thank you," she said.

"Molly is a little superstar and she is going to be doing big things, she already is. She is amazing."

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