KINGS Park was abuzz at the weekend as the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo celebrated 35 years of the annual event.
About 400 exhibitors came from near and far to display the best goods they have to offer, including a swathe of home-made products and the latest in farming technology.
Event manager Joanne Bartlett, who has been part of the expo for five years and just completed her third year of running it, said the event is “very much a community”.
Talking with the Review on the opening morning, she said she was feeling really positive.
“(We weren’t) sure how the crowds were going to go with everyone’s current fear of the fuel crisis and economic things going on,” Ms Bartlett said.
“But we’ve had a great start. Gates are open, the weather’s held off, it’s quite nice weather to be wandering around.”
Stalwarts of the expo were once again on show, with few more eye-catching than Paul Macphail’s Beloka Kelpies Working Dog Demonstrations taking place on the main oval.
Hailing from Welshpool in the South Gippsland region, the Beloka Kelpie Stud owner has been part of the expo for nearly a decade and told the Review his relationship with the organisers keeps him coming back.
“I left home at 4 o’clock this morning and got here at 8.30 and we stopped once,” Mr Macphail admitted.
“It’s a very good field day. It’s really got a lot of stuff going on and we get a nice clientele.”
The expo also offered a chance for visitors to donate to local CFA stations in Seymour and neighbouring communities following the January bushfires. QR codes posted around Kings Park allowed the public to select which CFA brigade to donate money to, with BlazeAid also on site to share information about how it has helped people recover from the fires.
Other exhibitors included Brandon Kroon from BK Carving, displaying his expertise with both chainsaw and fire as he crafted a large kookaburra out of wood. Mr Kroon is fresh off success at last year’s US Open Chainsaw Sculpture Championships, finishing third.
Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society offered Devonshire tea and home-made goods to go alongside the barbecue offerings from the Seymour Football Netball Club and the Eastern Hill Cricket Club.
The secretary of the Agricultural Society Pam Beerens was busy with her own display of Babydoll sheep, now into her third year of displaying the lesser-known breed which she said makes for a good pet along with its meat producing capacities.
There was plenty for the kids to do as the school holidays drew to an end, with camel riding and husky sled-pulling demonstrations two of the biggest hits.
The Seymour Car Club, which has been part of the expo since it launched back in the 1990s, rolled out more than 20 of its members’ vehicles, including the orange ‘clubman’ owned by Rob Phoenix that he built himself.
Club president John Phoenix OAM was a bit sceptical when he heard they were displaying their vehicles around the edge of the oval rather than in the middle like previous years, but said things turned out for the better.
“When they told me I’ve got to park all the cars, I thought ‘ah s***, this is not gonna work’,” he said.
“But today I’ve changed my mind, I’m happy.”
Having seen plenty of expos in his time with the car club, John spoke highly of the way this year’s event was set up.
“Today is the biggest change that I’ve seen as far as stallholders. Normally it was the same for years and years and years,” he said.
“We’ve just had a quick walk around then, and there’s a lot of different stall holders now than what there were (before), which is a good change.”
