The sounds of dodgem cars speeding around, logs being sliced, and laughter was heard all around Harden-Murrumburrah, stemming from the Harden Showgrounds last Saturday.

The value family day out had families from all around the area come down to enjoy unlimited rides, food, showbags, pony rides, face painting and wood chopping competitions, for a $5 entry fee.

At the back of the Fair was the wood chopping competition, which gave the adults something to watch while their kids enjoyed the rides and attractions, or maybe even watch the wood chopping themselves.

Sarah Jones, Secretary of the Harden Christmas Fair, was thankful the weather was sunny for the day.

“We know it won’t be run for profit so it’s just something that we put on to have as a community event and we don’t really have profit in mind when running it,” she said.

“That’s how we’re able to provide the free rides and everything with support from community organisations.

“It’s quite lucky to have the sunshine, it was quite good. We had upwards of 800 people through the gate.

“Our community groups that were there on the day had a pretty good day so they’re able to raise funds for the public school, the junior league and the pony club.

“It’s basically just an opportunity for everyone to come together.

“It was well received by the communities. Families were very appreciative of a cheap day out.”

An additional event was the arrival of Santa all the way from the North Pole at 2pm, making time for the small town in his busy schedule heading into Christmas.

An auction for the naming rights of the Murrumburrah-Harden 2023 show is also running, allowing for sponsors to have their name in the title of next years show.

“It’s currently sitting at $2,000, that’s our current bid. An opening bid, it will run until December 4 at 7pm, so we encourage people to send through their bids to Andrew [Jones].”

The bids can be sent through to Andrew Jones on 0431 154 276.

“A big thank you to our committee members, but also the members of the community that stepped forward and helped us run the day.

“It was quite good to see people step forward and members of the committee actually be able to enjoy our event as well because we have the hands to cover the gate and sought out the woodchop so we were able to also enjoy the event.”

Christmas came a month early for Harden-Murrumburrah.

Jack Murray