By Tania Phillips
It’s back, bigger and better than ever after a year off. It’s the 110th Killarney Show on Friday and Saturday 24-25 February.
President Jan Hamilton and her hardworking committee invite locals and visitors alike to celebrate the Killarney community, it’s traditions and friendships and to enjoy some friendly competition.
Jan said the show was also a great time to welcome visitors to community and was the culmination of months of work, which started well before Christmas when volunteers and stewards began preparing the programs and the grounds.
Killarney Show is one of the focal points of the local community a chance for locals old and new to come together and enjoy what they have in this tree-changing region.
“I think the country atmosphere makes it special, the friendliness of the town,” Jan said.
“In the past two years since covid, our tourists have been unbelievable, from Friday to Monday the town is just buzzing.
“We get heaps and heaps or tourists and we have a lot of new people in town, it’s amazing how many new people there are now, bringing their own talent.
“Killarney show grounds is one of the very few privately owned showgrounds in Australia, we aren’t owned by the council so we have a lot of events throughout the year, we don’t have to compete with the football clubs to use the ground,” Jan explained.
“After the show, the week after, there is a big Horse Cutting Event – the grounds will be ready, but will have to make sure it’s cleaned up from the show, we’ve got all bins empty and ready to go.”
But first things first, after a year off, the committee and volunteers all ready and raring to go to put together a fun, family event this weekend.
“The show is 24-25 February and on the Friday we have a prime cattle section that starts early in the morning and goes until lunch time and then we have a rodeo starting at 6pm on Friday night,” Jan explained.
“The pavilion will be open from about 2pm on Friday, after all the entries come in and we get all of the judging finished, then the stewards get to display the areas the best they can which is usually really, really good. And they show off all the talent in the community.
“Our cookery is really strong, especially our junior cookery, well every section is strong, but the kids really put a lot of entries in. Lego is a big section too. We’ve got a couple of different age groups and there’s two sections, your own creation or a creation from the box. The one with the box comes with instructions but your own creation well it’s just amazing what the kids come up with. It’s a great display.
“The floral art is always really good and with this bit of rain around we might have a good display in our horticultural section, the cut roses and flowers. It was getting dry but now with this bit of rain it might be enough to bring things around in the next 30 days hopefully.
“The farmers bring in a good display with heads of sunflower, corn, lucerne and things like that, we always have a good display of their crops.”
“That’s Friday, the prime cattle, the rodeo and the pavilion opening.
“On Saturday it starts off early with showjumping which is a really big event, lots of competitors. We have all the different horse sections within the ring, the woodchop which is massive, we get really great competitors for the woodchop that starts at 9am and goes usually until 4pm and it’s full on all day.
“We’ve got dog high jumping – you can bring your dog along and see how high it can jump. That’s really great fun we have two sections of that. We’ve also got The Big Bang Science Fair that’s something new for the Killarney Show, that’s something good for the kids. We’ve got the Bunnings area for the kids, Bushcare, the Age Care have a display. We’ve got a marquee which is a great place to sit in the shade, you can also see the ring from there. There’s a lots of shady areas, the veranda of the pavilion is massive you can sit out on the veranda. The entertainment marquee is where the school choir perform, the local dancers perform and that’s where we have a lot of give-aways.”
She said it is still a true local community event.
“Oh it is and it’s full on all day, there is something going on all the time and of course you have side-show alley and what-ever comes along with that.”
