Why being a Murrumburrah Harden Showgirl is important

‘It’s just a beauty pageant.’ This is the standard sentence that you are greeted with when anything is mentioned about The Land Showgirl Competition. Well, I beg to disagree. Poised, independent, opinionated and educated are just some of the words that I would use to describe the girls that I had the pleasure of meeting on my Showgirl journey.

The Showgirl competition started in 1962 and was introduced as a way to encourage young woman to be more involved with the agricultural shows and farming. Over time some of the policies have changed, however, the basic fundamentals remain the same. It is for a group of young women who are rurally orientated, have an interest in agriculture, and feel that they have something worthwhile that they can contribute to their community.

They are judged before a panel of three judges on their personality, confidence, goals and ambition, local and current knowledge, speech and presentation. The judges are chosen from three different areas of agriculture. The Showgirl competition in New South Wales is split into 6 zones with all country towns allocated into an area. Harden is part of Zone 6, which is the largest zone out of the 6 with approximately 25-30 girls participating. Our area spans from Harden to Broken Hill and out to Narrabri, and all towns in-between.

After passing through the local level, all the winners are invited to attend a personal development weekend. This consists of learning how to walk properly, talk properly and dress properly, among many other handy hints. Now a lot of young people may scoff at this, and while I did the same when I first heard about it, there was more to the weekend than just the deportment.

First of all there was the chance to meet all the other showgirls. This not only calms the nerves, but also gives you the chance to network with like-minded girls and develop friendships with girls from all over New South Wales.

Second of all, even though rules have changed in the social etiquette scene, it is invaluable for young women to be able to conduct themselves in a social scene. The second part of the Showgirl competition is to participate at the Zone Finals. The weekend consists of one on three judgings for each girl, a luncheon with the judges, and an on-stage interview. The girls are judged throughout the whole day with the state finalists announced in the evening.

When I entered this competition I knew that I had an interest in our community and what went on, but until I started to ask more questions and do some research, I didn’t realise just how much there was to know or just how interested I was in what happened in our town.

Six months ago I wouldn’t have been able to substantially answer a question on amalgamation and the effects on our community, however, on Saturday night when I was asked this on stage in front of 300 people I was able to formulate an answer confidently and have a belief and understanding in what I said. I even managed to get a round of applause for my answer.

The other cool part about this competition is that you don’t actually need to be a farm kid, or own property, or show cattle. All you need is a passion for what you do, an interest in rural communities, and the drive to be the best you can be. Some of the showgirls in the past have been paramedics, occupational therapists, beauty therapists and oral hygienists.

We need to change the misconception of what this experience is all about, and instead discover the opportunities that can be available by giving it a try. After participating in this competition it has made me reassess my interests and the way I feel about our community.

I believe that youth in our community need more opportunities to develop their skills to give them the best chance possible to pursue their chosen careers. There are many opportunities that are available to country kids and it’s all about doing the research and the hard work in discovering them.

In conjunction with some past Showgirls, including local, state, and even Sydney Royal winners, I am hoping to push the competition forward in our town and give young women more opportunities. If you are a young woman in our community and feel that you have something to say, to contribute, an idea that you think needs to be heard, or if you just want to develop your skills and have an opportunity to meet people then please watch this space for more events available to you. After all, we really are the backbone to our community and it’s important that we work together to help make Harden Murrumburrah the best it can possibly be. I truly believe that we are incredibly lucky to be from the country. We work hard for what we want and we know how to be humble and grateful for what we have.

I would like to quickly thank the people who made the journey to Bathurst with me. A huge thanks to our 2013 Showgirl, Kayla Daley. Also Doug Baker and Grace Morris, Scott and Fiona Collins, Paul and Kirsty Kemp, Rob and Kerrie Provan and Clare Palmer, and a huge thank you to my parents Marg and Tony Campbell and Grahame Taylor. I was extremely lucky to have such a supportive group of people with me on the weekend and I would like to thank you all for taking the time to be there and for sharing the adventure with me. I also would like to thank Jen Sheridan and the team at the Bendigo Bank for sponsoring me throughout the experience. Our town is very privileged to have a bank that is so supportive of the community.

Georgie Campbell

Georgie (right) is pictured with Anna Tickle of Dubbo and Lucy Watt of Cumnock.