The 137th Murrumburrah-Harden Show took place on Saturday at the Murrumburrah Showgrounds. The Show featured many new events and saw attendance from even local MP Michael McCormack, who said “it was great to catch up with many residents, look through the pavilions and watch the entertainment on offer, such as the wood chopping and the rodeo. “A fantastic family get-to-gether for a wonderful regional community.”
At the Show, there were Hawkesbury Working Kelpies trainer Anthony Attard’s Kelpies, the sideshow alley, and the first-ever rodeo ring the following day.
The President of the Harden Show Society, Andrew Jones, said it was a major success by all reports from the comments of the general public, “I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but I know it probably was a record-breaking,” he said.
“Quite a few people came. When I did the opening, I had a big speech prepared that I was going to read from my phone, then I opened it just before I went into the rodeo arena, and there were so many people that I was a bit taken aback. I couldn’t hold my phone, so I just went adlib.
“There were plenty of locals as well as people who had just come in from out of town for the day, which was great.
“As I had said previously, you want to make it a great day as much as you can for an affordable price, “The quick shear, the rodeo and the wood chop were big hits. Leading in, they were always going to be the big ticket items, but I didn’t envision how well they’d actually go. You plan for all these things and think it’s going to go all right, but not till you actually have the day that you go, but it was way bigger than what we expected.
“All the kids had a great day. I know my kids were asleep before they even left the Showground, which means the job’s well done.
“A massive thank you to our general committee in all areas, whether that’s the cattle, the sheep, the wood chop, the pavilion areas, just the general committee that we’ve got is there month in, month out, planning this stuff. All the sponsors across the whole show, Bendigo Bank, the naming sponsor, and our major sponsor, were great to have.
“There were auction items that were just donated on the day that were out of the blue, just straight for the Show Society and without stuff like that, it all helps. Zak Leitner was a driving force behind the rodeo events that brought plenty of people over to see all the fuss.
“It was good. There was a big crowd and numbers were up on the show, so it was a good and successful event,” he said.
“This is the first time they have had a bull ride there. We had a lot of entries. Entries were good. We had a really good turnout and everything ran smoothly.
“We are hopefully looking at getting bigger and better next year, and keep going from there. We had a lot of volunteers turn up and help us out on the day and the next day, tidying up, and we had a lot of people call us the next day and say that they want to jump on board, sponsoring us for next year.
“We had a lot of good sponsors this year, which was good. In terms of the Show overall, it was hard for me to judge that sort of thing as I was flat out at the bull ride, but to look out from where we were, there were good numbers and a good crowd all the way around that we could see.
“Thank you to all our volunteers and sponsors and to the Show Society for taking it on. They put it to us to run it.”
It was also another successful QuickShear with Pae Abraham taking out the open shearer with a time of 17.20 seconds.
Results were: Opens, Pae Abraham – 17.20, Jimmy Samuels – 17.27, Bailey Raff – 19.66. Intermediates, Ethan Ede – 30.97, Jay Knight – 31.10, William Cox – 39.81. Novice, William Coddington – 38.74, Bailey Cooper – 43.62, Ross Ronald – 105.46. Open Shearer, Josh Glover – 40.22.
Isabel Duke won the AgShows NSW Young Woman title and will represent Murrumburrah-Harden in the Zone 6 finals at Eugowra on 28 February. Isabel is a familiar face in Harden and the show, having been a competitor in the Horse ring regularly. Isabel is a strong advocate for Harden’s women’s and junior rugby, and gives up many hours supporting our junior teams. Isabel now goes to zone finals in Eugowra in 2026.
– Jack Murray
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