The Townsville Show

Back while we were still in Townsville, we headed to the showgrounds to take in "The Show" - Australia's equivalent to the fair. These shows seem to be a big deal around the country, and at least in Queensland, there is a floating state holiday that each town dedicates to make a long weekend when the show is on.

The first event we watched was wood chopping, and it became clear very quickly that these guys are serious. Handicapped start times, humongous axes, singlets for their wood chopping teams... 

Next it was off to the Robinson's Family Circus - the smallest family circus in Australia. It's hard to imagine how a circus could get much smaller, as this one had four participants (mum, dad, son and daughter), one pony, and two doves. But it did have a lot of heart (and the good grace to end before the attention spans of my four and seven year old).

For lunch, the girls enjoyed Dagwood Dogs - the show equivalent of a corn dog, only the largest ones I've ever seen. Chris and I, not feeling up to carnie food, opted for the Thai booth run by a local family. 

And then we made our way to the Show Bags area. Apparently, it's a grand Australian tradition (and maybe elsewhere, but not at any fair I've ever attended) to attend the local show and buy cheap plastic bags filled with candy or toys or other random stuff. After doing a bit of research (reading a wiki entry on show bags), I learned that these were originally free bags filled with promotional items.

Show bags are free no longer, however. I think we saw prices ranging from $4 to upwards of $30 or more for items that didn't look like they would be worth as much as people seemed to be shelling out. A 2002 article in Melbourne's The Age, aptly titled "Either way your wallet's a loser", profiled a family of five who attended the Melbourne show. Final damage? A whopping $230 for tickets, petrol, parking fee, two ice creams and fourteen showbags. Crazy from our frame of reference, but I'm telling you, young and old were rolling out the gates of The Show with bulging show bags in tow. The girls were quite happy to accept tickets for a few rides in lieu of show bags, and I was grateful not to have yet one more thing to stuff into suitcases later.

The whole show experience was made (at least for Chris and me) by The Duck Fashion Parade. For 30 years, farmer Brian Harrington has been touring Australian shows and international venues with his "girls", as he calls them. As a teaser for his show, he walks the show grounds with his border collie herding along three of the girls dressed in their finery - and it worked, because that was enough for us to show up well in advance of the show and snag some good bleacher seats.

This video captures the entire experience, from the running commentary to the soundtrack, far better than I managed to do with photos.


Duck Fashion Parade 2012 

I was in complete stitches by the time it was done, and Chris was not in much better shape. The girls seemed to be overtaken by the cuteness of begowned ducks. I also got a kick out of Alison, who said upon seeing the bride and groom ducks "Awww! Look, it's the King and Queen!" Think she's been in a Commonwealth country for awhile?