Andrew Leigh

I spoke in parliament this week about the Royal Canberra Show.

Royal Canberra Show
2 March 2011

Last weekend I took the family to the territory’s one and only Royal Canberra Show. The show puts on display the best produce and livestock that the ACT and surrounding areas have on offer. Bolstered by the best growing season many producers ever seen, there was a diverse showcase of farm animals and agricultural and horticultural produce. As a boy who attended an agricultural high school, I greatly enjoyed watching the working dogs, seeing the cattle classing and checking out the fresh produce. We also witnessed the V6 HiLux team crash two utes in front of us, prompting my four-year-old to turn to me and say, ‘Daddy, was that meant to happen?’

The 134,000 people who attended were no doubt drawn by the furious show competition that can only be associated with a good agricultural event like the Royal Canberra Show. Congratulations should be afforded to winners like Hannah Power and her bull Recharge, who took home the senior champion ribbon; the Howe family with their stockhorse O’Brien’s Flauntette, who won Champion Australian Stock Horse Working Horse; Dan Dwyer, with his tablet and butternut pumpkins; and DE Thomas with the dog Maryheather Wolfman, who took out first in Australian Bred Working Dog Class.

The success of the Canberra Show tells me two things worth celebrating: Canberrans are proud of their city’s country roots; and the growing regions that surround Canberra—the Monaro, Upper Lachlan, Palerang and Yass Valley—are going strong.