Lynda Holland has been helping out at the Cobargo Show for more than 41 years and Sally Halupka has been volunteering in the show canteen since 2012. Photo: Marion Williams.
Each year the Cobargo Show draws ever bigger crowds, thanks to its committee members and other volunteers who are the show’s heart and soul.
Many of the early show society members have descendants in the current committee. Names such as Tarlinton, Salway, Cole, Sawtell and Allen are prominent throughout its history.
The committee for the 126th Cobargo Show also has members who are relative newcomers to Cobargo, while some have no agricultural, pastoral, or horticultural background.
Shannon Miller from Narooma for example did not go to agricultural shows as a kid because his parents were always working. He attended his first Cobargo Show when he was around 16 because his girlfriend at the time lived in nearby Yowrie.
He did his apprenticeship with Cobargo Show president Daniel Allen’s carpentry and rural contracting business.
“Daniel was here so I was here with him. I enjoyed helping out and kept doing it,” Mr Miller says.
“This is my first year on the committee, but I have been helping out for three or four years with whatever needs to be done.”
Shannon Miller from Narooma got involved with the Cobargo Show through his apprenticeship with show president Daniel Allen’s carpentry and rural contracting business. Photo: Marion Williams.
Sally Halupka moved from Canberra to Cobargo in 2011 and has volunteered in the show’s canteen since 2012.
As a teenager she competed in equestrian events at agricultural shows and knew shows were a way to meet the real locals.
When Ms Halupka heard they needed help in the canteen, she said she would be there on the Saturday morning. It grew from there.
After two or three years, they asked Ms Halupka to run the canteen for a separate horse show. That was when she knew the committee had accepted her and why she enjoys being part of the show.
“It is the locals knowing you have well and truly moved into the district and being part of the local scene,” Ms Halupka says. “It is not just attending events but being part of it.”
Otherwise, she would not bump into many of the show committee’s members.
“You don’t see them around because they are busy people on their farms,” Ms Halupka says. “The fact they are willing to come in and do so much work here is just amazing.”
Cobargo Show vice president June Tarlinton and chief steward of dairy Dylan Salway hard at work on 18 January preparing for the 126th show. Photo: Marion Williams.
The Salway family moved to Cobargo in the 1870s and have been involved with the show for generations. Dylan Salway’s great-great-grandfather was made a life member in 1970 and his great-grandfather in 1991.
He has been coming to the Cobargo Show his entire life. “My parents own a dairy farm, so we used to exhibit.”
Mr Salway started volunteering in 2018 and is now chief steward of the dairy section. His siblings are also committee members.
Lynda Holland and her husband Greg were made life members of the Cobargo Show committee a few years ago.
She cannot remember exactly when she started helping at the show, but she was doing things for it while pregnant with her daughter, now aged 41.
“I would organise the drinks and lollies for the pony club, and in my spare time I would be cutting onions for the show,” Ms Holland says. “Even then I wasn’t part of it, but Greg was part of it, and we had three daughters in pony club.”
Her involvement has focused on horses, particularly the hack and show jumping events, while Ron and Carolyn Cole have been pavilion stewards “all their lives” and “we have a young generation of Salways coming along”.
Volunteers preparing the showground for the Cobargo Show bring along their children which gets them involved from a young age. Photo: Marion Williams.
People support the show in different ways. Ms Holland said some committee members put up the judges at their homes, while Dave and Bronwen Allen at the Cobargo Hotel were great supporters and helpers.
One woman with a farm in the area has been donating 60 to 70 dozen eggs to the show canteen for several years, while the post office donated the buggy that Dave Rugendyke uses to shuttle people between the entrance and the pavilion.
Mr Miller says Mr Holland and Mr Cole “are here most of the year doing bits and pieces”.
Ms Holland particularly enjoys the homegrown entertainment and the local lads dressing up. “The Salway boys with their push me, pull me car. Once, they blew up a dunny.”
She has seen the show grow to the point that farmers nearby are opening up their paddocks for parking while the show is on 7-9 February.
“I think it is great to see the committee members coming together as a team to give back to the community.”
Mr Salway agrees. “I just like putting on a great show for our community and it brings everyone together.”
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