Camden Show

Camden Showground c.1986  (Camden Images)

The Camden Show returns

The annual festival of farming returns the to the Camden Show ground at the end of March again. The show has been the most important country festival in the district for over 100 years. In the early days it was a celebration of agricultural modernism, by the inter-war period it had matured into a permanent part of the local landscape. The Second World War and the poor state of show finances saw the show disappear for the duration of the conflict. It is now strong than ever and not to be missed on Friday 20 March and Saturday 21 March 2015.

Read more @ http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/macarthur/camdens-favourite-show-returns/story-fngr8h70-1227240262212 

Guess who you meet at the show, the Premier

Historical society members meet the Premier 

It is amazing who you bump into at the Camden Show. Historical society volunteers John Wrigley OAM, Bettie Small PHF and Len Channell, with Peter Hayward in the background, greeted Premier of New South Wales, the Hon. Barry O'Farrell, the Member for Camden, Mr Chris Patterson, MP, and Camden Mayor,  Clr Lara Symkowiak. The dignitaries just walked into the pavilion to look at the arts and crafts put in by competitors and who should they meet but the enthusiastic members of the historical society. The encounter didn't phase society members one bit and they just took it all in their stride. Usually volunteers just meet friends they have not seen since last years show and this was a real surprise. The historical society has been fortunate to be able to have a stall in the show pavilion for many years. It has been located in amongst the cakes, flowers, sewing, knitting and other rural crafts.  The stall sells the latest publications, takes new memberships and renewals and answers lots of local history questions.

Mud and slush at the 2014 Camden Show (I Willis)

Mud and Slush 

The 2014 Camden Show featured mud and storms as a special event. It rained on Friday afternoon with a thunderstorm that arrived around 4.00 pm from the south-west. It caught many people unawares and created a mud bath in many parts of the showground. It dumped about 15 mm in about an hour. On Saturday morning show officials were out and about puting down woodchip over the worst patches and straw on other patches. Patrons who wore boots were well prepared to walk around in the mud. On Saturday there was a steady rain from about 4.00 pm with a short storm that came in over the Burragorang Valley and Southern Highlands, and provided drizzle around right through the fireworks.

Aerial view of Camden Show (Camden Show Society)

Miss Camden Showgirl

The Miss Showgirl competition is in many ways an anachronism from the past. It has survived for over 45 years under the onslaught of feminism, post-modernism, globalization and urbanisation. A worthy feat indeed.

The competition is still popular and the local press are always strong supporters. Show time, the show ball and Miss Showgirl are representative of notions around Camden’s rurality. People use the competition as a lens through which they can view the past, including the young women who enter it. In 2008 Showgirl Lauren Elkins ‘was keen’, she said, ‘to get into the thick of promoting the town and its rural heritage’. Camden people yearn for a past when the primary role of town was to service the surrounding farmers and their needs. Miss Showgirl is part of the invocation of rural nostalgia.

Miss Camden Showgirls

1962 Helen Crace 1963 Helen Crace 1964 Sue Mason 1965 Barbara Duck 1966 Dawn Dowle 1967 Jenny Rock 1968 Heather Mills 1969 Michelle Chambers 1970 Joyce Boardman 1971 Anne Macarthur-Stanham 1972 Kerri Webb 1973 Anne Fahey 1974 Sue Faber 1975 Janelle Hore 1976 Jenny Barnaby 1977 Patsy Anne Daley 1978 Julie Wallace 1979 Sandra Olieric

1980 Fiona Wilson 1981 Louise Longley 1982 Melissa Clowes 1983 Illa Eagles 1984 Leanne Reily 1985 Rebecca Py 1986 Jenny Rawlinson 1987 Jayne Manns 1988 Monique Mate 1989 Linda Drinnan 1990 Tai Green 1991 Toni Leeman 1992 Susan Lees 1993 Belinda Bettington 1994 Miffy Haynes 1995 Danielle Halfpenny 1996 Jenianne Garvin 1997 Michelle Dries

1998 Belinda Holyoake 1999 Lyndall Reeves 2000 Katie Rogers 2001 Kristy Stewart 2002 Margaret Roser 2003 Sally Watson 2004 Danielle Haack 2005 Arna Daley 2006 Victoria Travers 2007 Sarah Myers 2008 Fiona Boardman 2009 Lauren Elkins 2010 Adrianna Mihajlovic 2011 Hilary Scott 2012 April Browne 2013 Isabel Head 2014 Jacinda Webster

Read more about Miss Showgirl in Camden and elsewhere in NSW

Read more about nostalgia for Camden's rural past