Chairman Mal O’Toole introduced Dr Roger Wilkinson, a sheep farmer from Wangoom and a research consultant in agriculture and resource management. He is also Senior Vice-President of the Warrnambool Agricultural Society.
Roger began by noting that the Villiers & Heytesbury Agricultural Society was formed in 1853, held its first Show the following year, and changed its name to Warrnambool Agricultural Society in 1912.
Roger said that the two-year COVID gap had been testing, but the Society had resorted to a range of activities to keep going, and was back in action this year with a one day Show bursting with events and activities. The reduction from 3 days pre-COVID to a single day was caused by a serious lack of volunteers to carry out the arrangements.
Roger mentioned that all the traditional competitions were included, along with a “community hub” where organisations can have a free stand to promote themselves, displays by Victoria Police, the Ambulance Service, and similar. Thanks to a Government Grant, children would be admitted free. There would be lots of entertainment, including in the evening. Plenty of food vans in attendance, including RCWE BBQ trailer, and the CW.A doing catering.
It was hoped that there would be plenty of good rides present, but exactly who came was determined by the Showman’s Guild.
There was some discussion of the future, where Roger noted that the committee had been reduced from around 40 persons to just 10 due to lack of volunteers. It was noted that the Royal England Show had collapsed, and locally, it seemed that smaller town Shows like Noorat were doing better than Warrnambool because of the “back to” and community connections. Another issue raised was the impact of the Allansford Field Days and Sheepvention – older members raised the joy of seeing tractors and machinery at the Show in former times.
Mal thanked Roger for his presentation, and announced that the $30 would go to One Day Studios.