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  More than 70,000 people attended over the four days of the rally, exceeding targets by 80 per cent.

Despite the efforts of protesters to disrupt the World Rally Championships in northern NSW last weekend, the event has been confirmed for 2011.

Organising committee chairman Garry Connelly said Rally Australia would alternate each year with New Zealand and would return in two years. "We won't know the exact dates for a while as the FIA usually announce the calendar in December the year before," he said. "We'd prefer it at roughly the same time which is perfect because it's just before the school holidays and the weather is usually stunning. "We had perfect weather all weekend with a storm early Saturday morning which just settled the dust."

He confirmed that the Speed on Tweed classic street rally would again be a part of the event. More than 70,000 people attended over the four days of the rally, exceeding targets by 80 per cent. "We were very conservative in our crowd estimates for the first year," Connelly said. "We always said we didn't expect a large crowd in the first year. "But it does mean we are going to have to plan more spectator points. "We had a few little complaints about parking, toilets and exit from the stages because we were just overwhelmed with so many cars and people. We were just swamped. "But it will be solved. Any event that rest on its laurels is doomed to fail."

Connelly said they had less than a year to organise the event. "That is too short for a new event in a new location."

He said organisers were working with police to prevent another disruption by protesters. Two stages of the rally were cancelled on Friday after protesters threw rocks at competitors' cars. "Unfortunately the teams did see the vocal minority, but I think what left a bad taste was the radical actions of what I would estimate were less than six people who did dangerous things," Connelly said. "We're working with the police on a strategy for that but we're not making that public."

Connelly, who was awarded a member in the general division of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen's Birthday honours list this year for service to motor sport, said they had "just enough volunteers".

"We had more than 1000 volunteers from all over Australia, including a huge contingent from Perth who wanted to get their 20-year awards for being officials, as well as New Zealand, Japan, Finland, US and Great Britain who flew here at their own expense.

"We had an email from the Ford team which won the event asking us to congratulate the volunteers because the team couldn't find one error or mistake by any of them over the entire rally."