By Margaret Maccoll
This week, in any other year, the spotlight would be well and truly shone on the Show sector with animal breeders and farmers showcasing their breeds and produce alongside arts and crafts at the Royal Brisbane Show or Ekka.
So Noosa Today chatted to a few local show exhibitors who have taken a forced break this year.
Yvonne Hopf is one of only two giant Schnauzer breeders in Queensland and at this time of year would be immersed in the dog show scene at the Ekka.
For more than 20 years Yvonne has shown her dogs at the Ekka and Royal Sydney Shows.
This year she had planned to show two of her dogs and be joined by her daughter who would have travelled from Canberra to show three.
“It takes 10 weeks to get them in show condition,” she said. “You strip them out, down to nothing and the top coat grows back. The furnishings on the legs you trim with scissors.”
The show is a venue dog breeders and their dogs look forward to for the excitement of the show and the opportunity to meet old friends and new.
“You have your own group of people. You gossip a bit, have a picnic,” she said.
“Country shows are a full day out.”
But this year all the big shows have been cancelled. Yvonne said plans for the big shows which are always judged by overseas judges are usually planned well in advance with invitations to judges sent a year ahead, meaning there is uncertainty on the return of future shows.
Melanie Barnes has 80 guinea pigs at her Cooran home, has bred and shown them since she was a girl and since moving to the Noosa Shire has established the Sunshine Coast Cavy Club.
When Melanie and her family moved to Cooran from Sydney a few years ago the guinea pigs flew Qantas.“They’re really inoffensive little animals. They’re very tame. They’re not aggressive in any way,” she said.
“A lot of people have them for pets. They’re happy to sit on your lap, happy to be in a cage They eat hay and a small amount of vegetables.”
In August each year a national show held in NSW attracts about 700 guinea pigs and their owners.
Having shown guinea pigs for about 35 years Melanie said a large attraction of the shows is the social interaction for people with similar interests. “That’s something you miss,” she said.
Anne Hunt began sewing as a girl, taught by her mother.
In Year 12 she studied design and made her own clothes so quilting was a natural progression for her.
“I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” she said. “There are two approaches to quilting. There’s quite a mathematical approach – it’s very geometric. The other approach is art quilts.”
When Anne began making quilts they were functional with many created for family members but her focus has become more artistic.
“It’s like a painter with a brush,” she said.
Anne’s award-winning quilts are regular entries at the Queensland Quilt Show and the Ekka but she also creates them for charity auctions and family members.
One of her favourite quilts titled Harriet, one degree of separation, holds a special meaning for her.
“I met Harriet when at Australia Zoo when I took a group of disabled adults to see her several times over time,” she said. “They adored her and fed her red hibiscus. Her pace was very non-threatening to them. On learning more of her history I discovered by meeting her I was separated to Charles Darwin by one degree of separation. He had collected her at the Galapagos Islands on a trip from Australia to England on a ship called The Beagle.”
Anne loves her trips to the shows with fellow-quilter Jeanie Henry to view the latest in quilts and compare notes.
A member of the Wallace House Quilters Anne said the social side of quilting was an important aspect and one she had missed this year.
Members of the Australian Light Horse Association have continued training their horses but there have been no shows or events recently to put their skills to the test.
Member Anne Marie Lawson said a lot of preparation goes into desensitizing their horses to the sounds, crowds and activities that accompany events.
Drums, flags, balloons and even fireworks are used to prepare horses for what they may expect at a show and newly trained horses are always paired with an experienced one.
Pomona resident Leanne Airey picked up photography as an interest and after winning her first award in a Ridgewood photography competition was encouraged to keep going.
Landscapes, waterscapes, animals and her stunning sunrises and sunsets have graced the gallery walls at a number of Noosa Country Shows and are often to be found in Noosa Today’s Lenscape.
Last year Leanne received three highly commended awards for her entries in the show’s photography competition and has volunteered to assist the show set up their display.
“I have been extremely grateful to have received so much encouragement and support from my community – so many people have contributed to my photography journey by way of encouragement and support,” she said. “My photographs would probably sit in my computer without their amazing support.”
She has entered the online 2020 Ekka Photography competition but hasn’t yet received results of the competition.
Leanne is missing the show she enjoys to participate in but her photographs can be viewed locally. For the next month 200 of her images are being screened on rotation on the TV at the Noosa Library.
And her images are sold as postcards at Pomona, Cooran and Boreen Point.
Cooloola Berries owners Kim and Jason Lewis haven’t been able to take their iconic strawberry ice-creams and other foods to local shows as they normally would but people are coming to them in droves at their Wolvi farm.
On Sunday people came for their Paella in the paddock lunch, picked their own strawberries, shopped for local produce or enjoyed an ice-cream.
Kim said their customers had increased 30 per cent since Covid cancelled local events.
