Busy Bathurst – Bathurst Show

Autumn is always such a busy time of year with events taking place in our area.  Over the last few weeks we have been out and about each weekend, taking advantage of all that has been on offer. 

Firstly, we visited the Bathurst Show back on the 18th April.  Last year’s show was wet and cold, which really affected the numbers attending.  This year was forecast to be somewhat similar.  Therefore, we arrived down at the showground at about 9.30am, with the plan to see as much as we could outside before it started raining, then look in the pavilions before going home.

It’s great to see our local show doing well again after a few years of turmoil.

We started off kicking tyres.  The show has traditionally been the place to have a look at the latest cars on offer.  They were absent for a few years, but most car yards are now back.

Of course, as you wander around you run into people you don’t see often and have a yarn.  People have time to yarn at the show, they aren’t in a hurry to be anywhere. 

We didn’t need a ride on mower now that we are back in town.

This year entertainment was provided by “The Crackup Sisters”.  They lived up to their names.  They were a crack up.

We wandered around  side show alley.

What a pity the sky wasn’t blue.

We nick named this one “The Vomitron”.

No show would be complete without the clowns.

We were entertained by local artists while we enjoyed our lunch.

And, of course Mick had to test out the Police Motorcycle.

We even had the chance to see our first ever flea circus.  The flea trainer was delightful.

Finally, we ventured into the pavilions.  It was now well after lunch, and still not raining, which was a bonus.  It was also quite warm.

The primary schools always enter some creative craftwork.  The fish out of patty cake cases were particularly colourful.

As usual, there wasn’t a lot of handiwork entered, but there was still some lovely work on display.  Quite a lot of the quilts were covered in plastic so too hard to photograph.

There were some pretty dahlias.

The backdrop of the Western Districts display from the Royal Easter Show is always put on display at Bathurst.  This year’s theme being ANZAC.

Next it was out to see the livestock.

This next one is for Tracy.

We watched the finals of the shearing competition.  Each shearer shore ten sheep in just on twelve minutes.  And they were cleanly shorn.  Rather impressive.  Mind you, one of the fellows is a world record holder.

I was impressed with the shearer’s boots.  They look rather comfortable.

The commentator remarked that he doesn’t see rouseabouts looking this good in the sheds as a rule.  The Miss Showgirl contestant obviously knows her way around a shearing shed.

We decided that we may as well stay for the evening’s program, so after grabbing some dinner we met up with some friends and found ourselves a strategic place on the Grandstand.  There is that special level where you are under cover, high enough to see all that is going on in the arena, but low enough to see the high fireworks. 

All was going well, we saw the daredevil utes and bikes, when suddenly, at about seven o’clock the heavens opened!!!  It was torrential and it was horizontal – straight into the front of the grandstand!!!  There was a mad dash by everyone to try and get under cover, but we all still got quite wet.  I felt for the stall holders who would have had no chance to cover anything and also those who were on rides.

We then decided that it was time to go home.  We had spent a much longer time at the show than we had expected but still hadn’t seen everything.  It really had been a great day.

So, we got home, got into some dry PJs, made a nice cup of coffee, and stood at our back door and watched the fire works.  Not a bad view and a great way to finish off the day.