Chair
I rise to inform the Chamber about another highly successful Brookfield Show last weekend, albeit under very challenging conditions.
The Brookfield Show always throws up something out of left field and this year wasn’t any different.
To say the wet weather in the week leading up to and during the event posed a number of issues for the organisers would be an understatement.
The fact that it went ahead itself was a massive achievement.
But come Sunday night, despite the lower than expected of people through the turnstiles, its fair to say the 111th Brookfield Show was a success in every sense.
The organising committee, under the leadership of President and tireless community worker, Cath Fullerton is to be commended for delivering an event that featured something of interest to everyone.
One of the Show highlights always is the horse jumping but as you can appreciate, with the Showgrounds being so wet and the potential for injury to riders and horses, the decision was made to cancel those events.
That was a major disappointment to competitors and spectators but Jumps steward, Julie Jelley was stoic and is already talking about a bigger and better programme in 2023.
The rodeo programme and sheep herding events were restructured, given the state of the showgrounds oval surface, and most of the other activities were able to proceed without a hitch.
The standard favourites – the wood-chopping and guinea pig racing – were again big hits while the children flocked to rides at sideshow alley and the baby animals area where they could mingle freely with baby goats and lambs.
The needle crafts and patchwork returned after a three year hiatus and was as popular as ever, as was the art pavilion and Brookfield CWA stand.
Chair, I want to thank our Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner for taking the time out of his very busy schedule for coming out on a wet Saturday night to open the Show.
He didn’t hesitate when asked about his availability and I’m guessing his four children also thanked him for doing so on the way home. They got to experience and enjoy something unique in the city that many of kids like me took for granted growing up in the bush.
In opening the show, the Lord Mayor presented James Booth with the trophy as winner of the Brookfield and District Community Award for this year. I can’t recall ever being at the Showgrounds and not seeing James volunteering in some capacity, so it was appropriate to see his contribution to our community recognised in this way.
Chair, the Brookfield Show is promoted as “Brisbane’s Biggest Little Country Show” and that couldn’t be a more appropriate description.
For those of you who know or have visited this very beautiful part of the Pullenvale Ward will know that its residents are rightly very proud and parochial about where they live.
It’s a community that sticks together and looks after each other during the tough times, as we saw during the March flood, and celebrates the good times like no other.
There is always someone putting their hand up to help and volunteer in some capacity.
Chair, I know there is a risk when you single someone out for recognition that you can overlook equally important contributions.
But the standouts obviously were the many hard working volunteers on the Show Society who were like ducks – calm on the surface but furiously paddling underwater – to deliver the event, through to the various stewards and Rotary Clubs of the western suburbs which staffed the entry gates and manage the carparking.
I did my share of stints at the turnstiles and at the information counter on Saturday and Sunday and there’s few better ways to engage with your local community.
Chair, what we saw on the weekend was Brookfield at its very best and on show to the rest of Brisbane, and I can only encourage everyone to mark the second weekend of May 2023 in their diaries for an event that I can guarantee all of the family will enjoy and remember for a long time. Thank you.