Show Tails

That is a very good question.  So much effort goes into putting on the Show for 14 days, but what does the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW and all the Show family do for the other 50 weeks of the year?

Planning for an event as big as the Sydney Royal Easter Show works on a 24 month cycle.  Planning is well advanced for the 2012 Show beginning on April 5 (stick that date on your fridge today).   Livestock exhibitors are already thinking about what animals they will begin preparing to bring to the Sydney Royal in 2012, and the folks who put the district exhibits together are already scheming about how they are going to end Northern District’s seven year winning streak.

The Show’s dedication to promoting excellence in agriculture does not end with the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  Before we talk about the other things the RAS does, we need to recognise the extensive range of competitions at The Sydney Royal Easter Show: alpacas, arts and crafts, caged birds, cats, cattle, district exhibits, dogs, field crops, flower and garden, frogs and reptiles, goats, horses, honey, pigs, poultry and pigeons, rabbits, rats and mice, sheep and fleeces.  Then there are the human competitions; rural achiever, young farmer challenge, showgirl, young auctioneer and woodchop.

It is an immense coverage of the agricultural industries and rural endeavours. A number of these events build up through local and regional competitions (through the local show movement) and culminate at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

On top of these Show competitions, the RAS also runs the the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, covering 11 competitions held in February and September each year.  In February the competition covers summer acquaculture, beer, bread, coffee and pasta.  In September the competition covers spring aquaculture, branded beef, branded lamb, deli meat, olive oil and regional food.

February is a busy month.  The Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Produce Show is held in February each year and covers butter, milk, cheese, icecream and gelato, cultured milk products, gelato, sheeps, goat and buffalo milk.   And to top it all off, the Macquarie Group Sydney Royal Wine Show attracting 2283 entries in 60 different classes is also judged in February.

The President's Medal

The pinnacle of all the wine and fine food shows in the Presidents Medal, held in July each year.  The Presidents Medal judging process begins with the 5,000 competitors who submit their products to the Sydney Royal Wine, Dairy and Fine Food Shows each year. From those competitors the Show Champions are chosen, and the Chairs of the Wine, Dairy and Fine Food committees select six of those Champions as finalists who are in the running for the President’s Medal.

Representatives from the Medal judging panel, which include eminently qualified experts from the food, restaurant and marketing trades visit each nominated producer. As well as the outstanding quality of their product, judges are scoring competitors for their passion, commitment, enthusiasm, environmental practices and pursuit of excellence.

The President’s Medal award ceremony takes place at a huge celebration dinner in Sydney attended by some of Australia’s best-known food and wine critics and connoisseurs, where the six finalists’ produce features on a menu designed especially for the occasion by some of Australia’s most acclaimed chefs.

In 2010, winners of the President’s Medal were Carla Meurs and Ann-Marie Monda’s Holy Goat Organic Chevre (goats cheese) from their Sutton Grange Organic farm at Castlemaine in Victoria.

So the pursuit of excellence in agriculture is a year round obsession for the RAS.  If this sounds like something you’d like to be better informed about or become involved in, why not become a member of the RAS so you too can be part of the Show family, 52 weeks of the year.

Show Tails is now taking a  bit of a break to recover from the 2011 Show.  We will be back to talk about the Presidents Medal and other RAS events throughout the year.

Polo, invented by the Chinese and the Persians, perfected by the Moguls and discovered by the British in Burma in the 1850s.  Played in England, Ireland, Argentina, the US and Australia.  And of course, played at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  Polo has been part of the Sydney Royal Easter Show for decades, and to play in a 13,000 seat stadium is a thrill for both international and domestic polo players.

Polo is associated with royalty and the international playboy set.  Princes Charles, William and Harry have all played the game, and fallen off their fair share of polo ponies. 

Sometimes polo at the Sydney Royal has an international flavour,  with invitational players from Argentina and the UK.  The image of the snake-hipped Argentine polo player, glass of Cristal Champagne in hand, chatting to a blond at the members bar, is not too far from reality.  However the Australian players representing the Queensland and NSW teams at the Sydney Royal this year play down the playboy image. 

Dick Doolin, playing for NSW and originally from the border town of Goondiwindi, says if polo is an elite sport, it certainly is not because of the players.  He says despite the involvement of Kerry and James Packer, it is not an elite sport in Australia. When asked why women seemed to find polo players attractive, Dick says  “I dunno, its something to do with the long boots and white pants.” 

So gentlemen, next time you are stepping out, cast aside the loafers and the slacks, and reach instead for the long boots and tight white pants. 

It’s certainly not a sport for wimps.  Astride a pony with an eye only for the ball, playing at speed and with plenty of horse and player contact, falls are common.  And so are injuries.  “Polo is a very physical sport and known for lots of breakages… most polo players have had a broken bone or two in their career. Broken legs, collar bones” says Dick . 

The teams at Sydney Royal Easter Show are competing for Polo Gold Cup Perpetual Trophy.  Want to know more about polo ?  Visit the Australian Polo Council Website.

With 800 exhibitors staying each night, and with many more coming onto the site each day to work with their animals or compete in Show events, feeding the humans is as big a job as feeding the animals.  If you are from the bush, chip on a stick, a turkey leg or a dagwood dog is just as tempting as for any city slicker.  But after a 14 day Show, and add in a few days to bump in and pack up, the joy of eating Show food is replaced with a yearning for the tucker they cook back home. 

Marie Lindley: Southern District

The exhibitors and competitors on site form into little communities within the big Show community.  The blokes who look after the woodchop competition, who spend all day wrestling with logs, and cleaning up the stumps afterwards, bring their own cook with them.  So every morning, not long after dawn, the smell of fresh sizzling bacon and eggs wafts out of the woodchop pavilion. 

Then there is one family of pig breeders, who bring down a side of home cured bacon, supplemented with fresh eggs from the poultry display at the Show.  Instant, fresh, bacon and eggs for breakast. 

The hearty and home cooked is a recurring theme.  Where it is practical, people prepare their own food in communal kitchens in the pavilions, or put something together in the walkways between the animal stalls. 

A popular place to chow down is the Cattleman’s Cafe in the Munro Pavilion.  Its not open to the public, but it’s very popular among exhibitors.   The cafe does 500 meals a day in a mess hall style.  It’s traditional home style cooking.  Roast of the day, lamb cutlets, shepherds pie, heaps of vegetables and salads.  While it has its temptations of chips and hash browns, it is a healthy, wholesome place to eat.   John Collins, the cafe’s manager (and part time Elvis impersonator) says the country kids are very polite. 

Cattleman's Cafe

“When they grab their meal they come past and tip their hat to the kitchen ladies,” he says.  The cafe operates on a voucher system, so parents can make sure their teenagers on site are well fed, without the temptation to spend their meal money on something else. 

 The District Exhibits, the massive displays of fruit and vegetables in the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome, require the people who plan and put them together, to be on site for three weeks.  Each district (SE Qld, Northern, Central, Western and Southern) brings in its own cooking gear and one of the team is nominated as chief cook.  Most of the produce is brought in from the home district, giving the menu for each district team (or court as they are known) a unique flavour. Lesley Dabelstein from the South East Queensland district owns an avocado farm in the Glass House Mountains.  For her crew, it’s wholesome porridge for breakfast every morning. 

Lesley Dabelstein: South East Queensland

Lorette Walmsley, from Grenfell and the Western district exhibit, says it’s the men’s job to cook breakfast.  And the breakfast menu includes tomatoes cooked in balsamic vinegar and sugar.  Yum.

Margaret Crowell from Tamworth (Central District) says she never co0ks the same thing twice.  She gives her stove a work out; if there is a main meal in the oven, there is a pudding on the stove. There are scones, pikelets, raisin bread, all home made.  Margaret makes home made chocolate custard and meringue pie.

Marie Johns from Richmond Hill in the  Northern District says she regularly cooks for 24 people, but this often swells to 40 people. Like all the district exhibit cooks, the focus is on traditional baked dinners and plenty of vegetables.  Marie has a chest freezer at the back of the exhibit so she can keep plenty of produce from home on hand.  

Marie Lindley from Gundagai says the cooking duties at the Southern exhibit are shared around.  It’s always hot meals: “I feed these people to keep them working”. 

When you talk to the people in the horse pavilions, the sheep and goat pavilions, the woodchop arena or anywhere around the grounds, it is the same story.  The Show becomes a series of communities where people come together, cook a meal and enjoy each other’s company.  And being able to cook on site, or use the cattleman’s cafe, helps keep the cost down for people travelling a long way from home to entertain and educate the rest of us.

If you want to see more about life around the Show, check out this video narrated by Goliath, the world’s smallest strong man.  Goliath picks up some nutrition tips from Fonzy, Australia’s tallest steer.  Got any food secrets from the Show ?  Comment and lets us know.

Alpaca breeder Shane Read in the cattle and alpaca sheds

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is like a medieval village with animals and people living cheek by jowl on site.  About 13,000 animals come through the Showgrounds during the 14 days of the Show.  Most of those would spend several nights on site as they acclimatise and are prepared for competition.  In the cattle sheds, for example, nearly 800 beef cattle move in during the first week of the Show.  In the second week, they are replaced by a similar number of dairy cattle and alpacas.  Around 800 people sleep on site with their animals every night of the Show. 

Today we have a sneak peek at what accommodation is like for the animal exhibitors.  Shane Read from Thuddungra has been bringing alpacas to the Show for 10 years.  In the pavilions, the accomodation is in two storey boxes or lofts.  They are just over 2 metres deep and two metres wide with an external ladder up to the loft level (you can see the ladder in the right hand side of the photo).  There literally is not enough room to swing a cat (calm down cat exhibitors, we didn’t give it a go, it’s just a turn of phrase).  Shane says the first night can get quite noisy because of all the excitement, but after that it’s a pretty decent night’s sleep. “I am usually so tired I just pass out.  You know what noises are alarming and what are normal, so it really is not difficult to adjust. The noise isn’t from the animals, I’m used to that. It’s usually from the passers by and people returning from the cattlmen’s bar”

Des Dunn: Accommodation in Pig and Goat Pavilion

For lots of animal exhibitors, a visit to the Show doubles as a holiday. With the Show falling in school holidays, often it is a family affair, with parents and children, and old friends, catching up in the animal pavilions each year. 

In any clear space between Show patrons, animals, bags of stock feed and equipment, you will find a few fold out chairs and a table where exhibitors are having a cup of tea and a yarn. 

Des Dunn, from Upper Lansdowne, travels 340 kilometres to bring 26 pigs to the Show.  He sets up camp in the pig and goat pavilion.  In the pig pavilion the accommodation is in small single story units, with communal kitchens and bathrooms.  While Des Dunn has a comfortable bed, swags are more common in the cattle and horse pavilions.  

Accommodation in Show animal pavilions, right in the middle of Sydney, is reasonably priced at $30 per night per person.  But don’t expect to get too much sleep.  The bright lights in the pavilions stay on until 10.30 pm and come back on again at 5.30 am.

Want to see more about what goes on at the Show after dark ?  Check out this video put together by the boys in the Wild Ride of Cobb and Co.  Got a question about sleeping over with the animals at the Show ?  Drop us a comment.

Driving a ute is as country as a broad brimmed hat, elastic sided boots and a laconic drawl.  The ute (or utility) is a part of rural identity, particularly for young people.  A good ute makes a few clear statements. 

Troy Bussey: 1994 Holden Commodore VR

Firstly, the driver probably doesn’t have a spouse and kids, because there is no-where to put them (unless it is a four door ute version, which is not particularly cool).  Secondly, a ute is saying the driver is an outdoors type.  The driver needs somewhere to throw a sweaty saddle and saddle blanket, a swag, a trail bike, an 18 gallon beer keg.  If the ute is kitted out with a roo bar and spotlights, clearly the driver is someone who drives long distances, at night, where many feral animals hurl themselves at the front of the drivers pride and joy. So a ute says a lot about an individual.  Owning a ute is not a solitary activity.  The Deniliquin Ute Muster in the Riverina town of Deniliquin created a world record in 1999 when 2839 utes and drivers assembled for the annual Deni Ute Muster. 

Wayne Anthony: 2006 Ford XR8

Ever keen to keep up with contemporary rural Australia, ute judging is now part of the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  This year the judges had lots to look at.  Extreme bullbars that looked like they would sink a battle ship.  Amazing artworks spray painted on bonnets.  Classic 1960s Holden utes fully restored.  And fully themed utes where the stickers, paint job and even flags were homage to beer drinking.  Rightly or wrongly, celebrating drinking culture, whether it be beer or Bundaberg rum and coke, is part of ute culture.  So is the blue singlet and workboots.  It is popular to personalise utes through stickers on bumper bars, bullbars, and windows. 

Paul Duggan: 2006 Landcruiser

Homages to Bundaberg rum, R.M.Williams and an obscure country pub (the Conargo pub, in the middle of no-where on the western plains of the Riverina is popular) help tell a story about the ute and its driver.  You don’t get many save-the-rainforest or baby-on-board stickers.  Looking at utes, and judging them is great fun.  Nearly as much fun as circle work.  And the Queensland heats of The Australian National Circle Work Championships will be held at Marburg on Saturday, May 7, 2011 if you are interested.

Troy Bussey, from Dubbo entered a 1994 Holden Commodore VR into the Sydney Royal Best of the Best Ute Competition.  Troy spent three years ‘doing up’ his ute and it has provided him with hours of entertainment. Wayne Anthony from Campbelltown exhibited a 2003 Ford XR8.  Wayne spent $10,000 on the sound system for his ute that has a Wii installed under the back cover so he can play his favourite games wherever he pulls up. Wayne says if his ute could fit in his bedroom, his wife would be in the garage.  Check out Wayne’s ute in this Show wrap video. Paul Duggan from Penrith exhibited a 2006 Toyota Landcruiser featuring original airbrush designs on the bonnet and toolboxes. 

Ron Halliday: 1977 Holden HZ

Has been building utes for 16 years and feels he is finally receiving recognition for his work (and this machine). Ron Halliday from Inverell, rebuilt a classic 1977 Holden HZ ute with a timber tray.  It was a family project, built with his son and son-in-law.  The champion ute at the Sydney Royal gets a blue ribbon, a Blue Dog belt buckle and $1000 cash.  Almost pays for the petrol for the V8 to get there and back.

What does your ute mean to you ? Drop us a comment.

There is an old saying in the bush, all hat, no cattle. It is a mild insult, inferring the person is all show but has little agricultural substance. They are using their hat to project a sense of big time cow cocky, but really, they have a tiny spread and a few miserable cows. 

David Middleton: Pig Farmers wear hats too

The Queensland politician Bob Katter wears his big white cowboy hat with pride, despite having been a full-time politician since 1974. Some people read palms, some people read tea leaves, but a real Show Insider can tell where someone is from, what animals they show and how they see themselves, just by looking at their hat. 

The cowboys and rodeo people like ‘em high and wide. The conservative folk from the Riverina like them neat and tidy; not too wide and not too tall. If you are a bit of a show off, you might go for a big white straw number.  Or you might be big and bad, and wear a black cowboy hat. David Middleton, a pig farmer from Wallabadah, has worn a hat since he was 18 months old, daytime, night time, any time. 

Olivia, Madison and Caitlin Walker

He started out as an Akubra wearer but now prefers a white straw cowboy hat. We would have picked him for a quarter horse breeder. 

Agriculture of course is big business these days, and if you are proud of your Holstein stud, you will want to wear the brand on your head. Kangaroo Park dairy cattle breeders Olivia, Madison and Caitlin Walker from Clinton Park Holstein stud got their matching hats when they started showing last year.  It’s pretty easy to pick these girls as dairy cattle breeders. It is written on their hats. Dairy farmers aren’t known for extravagant headwear.  Normally they live in some beautiful, wet and green part of Australia where an old beanie is more practical to keep the cold out at dawn milking.

Campbell Jones: Cowboy in the making

Twelve year old Campbell Jones, from Scone is a cowboy in the making. And he shapes his own cowboy hats. He got this hat for Christmas three years ago. It is his favourite hat, his good hat for competing. His other old hat is for farm work. As you can tell from his choice of lid, Campbell competes in stock horse events. Ginger Johnstone from Orbost in Victoria shows the more conservative approach to millinery that you find in the southern state. Ginger is a stock and station agent, so looking the part, as well as talking up the market for beef, lamb, wool, in fact anything that can be bought or sold on a farm, is part of his stock in trade. He has had this hat for years. Ginger says with his nickname and complexion, wearing a hat is a necessity, not a fashion accessory. 

Ginger Johnstone: stock and station agent

We would have picked Ginger as a Corriedale breeder, but we can’t be right all the time.

We are in no doubt where Paige Richards fits in the show. Her beautiful navy blue helmet is something you would only see in horse competition. Paige is from Box Hill in Sydney’s North West. She’s had a successful Show, competing in various horse events. Paige has a blue helmet to match her blue riding jacket, and a grey helmet to match her grey riding jacket. She says a helmet is as much about fashion as it is about safety. Paige has been competing in hacking and dressage since she was a little girl.

If you like the look of the hats you see at the Show, its a great place to take the next step and buy one. 

Paige Richards: Fashion and safety

Check out the Fashion and Style Pavilion and see what is on offer with hats and other country gear. There are plenty of retailers selling hats and country gear around the grounds. The legendary bushman’s outfitter R.M.Williams has a wonderful store on site at the Show. Head down to The Stables on the eastern side of the Commonwealth Bank Arena to check out their range of hats and boots.  Of course, if you are going to get a new hat, you’ll need the right kind of boots to go with it! 

 Have you got some good hat photos or a good hat story?  Tell us about it.

Rodeo is a big part in the Sydney Royal Easter Show, this year it kicked off with the Australia vs New Zealand international series, then came the best young riders in the Young Guns series and from Friday night (April 22), it’s state of origin rivalry between Queensland and NSW. 

Bull riding action at the Sydney Royal Easter Show

Watching all this bull riding, bronc busting and steer wrestling got us to thinking, just how tough are these cowboys and girls? 

So we wandered down to Schmdit Arena where the cowboys chill-out before an event. We got talking to some bull riders (the toughest of them all) and some bull fighters (the craziest of them all). Bull fighters are the blokes who jump in front of 900 kilograms of enraged bull if the beast turns on the rider after he hits the turf.  They distract the bull, get chased by the bull, side-step the bull and work to keep the riders safe. They used to be called Rodeo Clowns and wore silly wigs, red noses and often hid in empty 44 gallon drums at country rodeos.  These days they have re-positioned their profession.  No more red noses, they now wear at least some protective gear and call themselves bull fighters. 

We asked the bull riders and fighters about their injuries, and what scared them most; riding a beast, or taking on one of the carnival rides at the Show.  This short video, Machine Vs. Beast, shows the guys being pretty laconic about their injuries, pretty laid back about the dangers of bull riding and bull distracting, but downright scaredy cats when it came to carnival rides.

You can see rodeo every night of the Show at 6:40pm through to April 27.  What would you rather do? Ride a wild bull or the Zipper ?

It’s the age old question of any public event. Where can I get a decent cup of coffee?  At the Sydney Royal Easter Show, we have a very good answer to that question.  Our video blog puts six cafes and their baristas to the test. Our special guest reviewer talks about location, taste and value, so click on the link and see for yourself. 

Medal winning coffee at the Sydney Royal Easter Show

The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, as part of its Fine Food Shows, runs the Sydney Royal Coffee Competition each year. Click through to the results of the 2010 and 2011 competitions to see the coffees that have won gold, silver or bronze medals. 

During the coffee judging (held in February) a panel of 21 coffee experts sipped their way through 245 entries over three days across six different types of coffee.  Entries come in from most Australian states. And if you go the Sydney Royal Deli in the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome, you can buy a bag of fresh medal winning coffee as well as taste the real thing.

Do you have a favourite coffee haunt at the Sydney Royal Easter Show ?

A few days ago we promised to get back to you with some more information on rabbit agility, or show jumping for rabbits.  Rabbit show jumping is eerily similar to horse showjumping as our exclusive pictures reveal.  In show jumping, if a horse and rider can complete the course within the prescribed time, without incurring any faults (knocking down a jump) it is a clean round. 

A clean round

Same goes for rabbit jumping, as demonstrated by Rusty. The official world record in high jump for rabbits is a gigantic 995 millimetres, yes, almost a metre. The highest jump recorded for a horse is 2.47 metres set by a thoroughbred stallion ridden by Captain Alberto Larraguibel in Chile in 1947.

In show jumping a series of obstacles is known as a combination.  In rabbit jumping, a series of obstacles is insurmountable. When a horse refuses a jump in show jumping, it is known as disobedience. In rabbit jumping it is called, well, I’m not sure, but it seems hard to accuse a rabbit of disobedience.

Rabbits are smarter than you think. There might be more than one way to skin a cat, and there is more than one way to get past an obstacle in rabbit show jumping. Rabbits, used to living underground (people from the bush still refer to them as underground mutton, a throughback to the depression era when rabbits were rations, not pets) like to go under, rather than over, most obstacles. This creates obvious problems for the competitive rabbit.  Instinct takes over, and under they go.

Under and out

Since 1997, the Rabbit competition has increased and currently attracts around 250 entries, with over four types of breeds – Fur, Rex, Lop and Fancy.   

Rabbits made their first appearance during the Sydney Royal Easter Show in the mid 1800s.  The 1858 prize schedule featured two classes for rabbits, which were ‘Best couple of Lop-eared Rabbits’ and ‘Best couple of rabbits of any breed’.  They also appeared in 1869-1877 and 1881-1882. Rabbits in this period were in the poultry section, sometimes alongside ferrets, cage birds, cavies and kangaroos!

If you like small furry animals, the rat and mouse show is held one day only on April 26.  Cat display days are on April 20 and 21 and the Open Championship Cat Show is on April 22 and April 25.  Dog events continue through to April 25. And nothing is cuter than the new born piglets in the Pig and Goat pavilion. You can see them tucked up in their straw bed with their protective mum anytime.

For Camden University student Hilary Scott, her life has changed forever when last night she was announced as 2011 The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl. 

(left to right) Prue Neely, Singleton, third; Hilary Scott, Camden, winner; Stephanie Tarlinton, Cobargo, runner-up. (Photo courtesy The Land)

For 49 years young women have come to Sydney to spend a week at the Sydney Royal Easter Show to attend official functions, be photographed, fussed over, quizzed and judged. 

The Showgirl competition starts with a field of young women at their local Show (there are 195 local agricultural Shows in NSW).  Most of agricultural Shows have a Showgirl competition. 

Each entrant, and each local winner, learns through the experience.  They get to practice answering questions from a panel, coming up with a pitch (if I am judged Showgirl this year I will….) and handling the pressure of it all.  By entering their local competition, these young women are saying they are willing to take on a role for their community.  And from that point on, they are seen as someone capable and willing to serve the many volunteer committees, from the Rural Fire Service to the local Primary School, that make rural communities tick.

Hilary is current studying for a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Wollongong.  She loves horses and works with her mother breeding and training performance horses at The Oaks. She is already riding in Australian Elite Development Squads and has the ambition of representing Australia  in Show Jumping competition. 

You can see Hilary accepting her award from Royal Agricultural Society of NSW President Glenn Dudley on the day three highlights video.  Hilary wins $10,000 for her efforts.  But she will earn every last cent.  For the next 12 months she will be criss-crossing NSW, speaking at agricultural functions, judging Showgirl competitions and opening Shows.  And finding time to pursue her dream to represent Australia in show jumping.

2012 will be the 50th anniversary of the The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl competition.  Show Tails would love to hear from past Showgirls.  Comment and tell us how winning the competition changed your life.