October 19-20 will be the 45th Murrumbateman Field Days, Yass Valley’s award-winning favourite farming day out. Bring the kids and enjoy family entertainment all weekend long with a huge range of exhibitors from livestock, tractors and farm machinery, building and home improvement, lifestyle and fashion, local food, kid’s entertainment and antique machinery – there is something for everyone.
Field Days Manager, Tom White, spoke to the Yass Valley Times about the Field Days past, present and future.
“Things are going really well for the Murrumbateman Field Days. We have started marking out the sites on the Rec Grounds. Our volunteers are out there getting everything ready. We are finalising all the exhibitor entries and things like that. It’s all going to plan,” he said.
“Some of the things people can look forward to seeing at the Field Days this year is over 300 exhibitors. We have everything from tractors, water tanks, plants, mowers, and generators for people to compare prices and if you are in the market for something, have a chat with our exhibitors.
“We also have lots of entertainment for the crowds. We have our stage entertainment which is happening across the weekend. We also have the racing pigs and we have the working Kelpies from the Hawkesbury Kelpies. They will be down on the oval and they will be running across the whole weekend within half an hour of each other. There will be displays of the spray drones happening across the weekend.
“There will also be camel rides and a gumboot throwing competition, which is a bit of fun. The gumboot comp is free to enter and people can have a throw of the gumboot and we will measure it and we have some great prizes for the longest gumboot thrown.
“We have free face painting for the kids. There’s the petting zoo and Jeff the Brumby man with horse demonstrations. The SES, VRA and RFS will be doing displays. The Mounted Police from Sydney will be on patrol throughout the site for the weekend.
“Komatsu is bringing a big excavator and bulldozer. If you are in the market for earthmoving equipment, you will be able to have a demonstration on that and a chat with their team. They also have an excavator simulator.
“Hutcheon and Pearce have a kids’ play area with John Deere toys and tractors to play on. There’s also the hole-in-one competition, which will be a bit of fun with the mini excavator golf head. There’s plenty of stuff happening right across the weekend.
“We do a lot of work with our community groups that run everything from the catering to toilets, the rubbish to the car parking with the RFS. For a lot of people and their community groups, it’s their biggest fundraiser of the year.
“It also takes a lot of volunteers to run it all. Everyone you speak to is either volunteering from the Lions Club or a bit for the RFS or a bit from us as the event’s host, so it’s a bit intensive as far as the volunteers go.
“What is interesting for us is that we have so many new residents in Murrumbateman and it’s a bit more of a chance for them to learn about agriculture and things like that. It’s probably a bit more of a family day out to come and meet some of the community groups they might not be in touch with.
“It’s an interesting demographic of visitors versus all the volunteers as it’s a massive volunteering effort as we have a huge number of volunteers on site from all the different community groups.
“The Murrumbateman Public School is doing one of the gates and they have about 20 volunteers across the weekend filling in all the shifts and you times that by all the gates. It’s quite labour-intensive. It’s really great that people do give up their time to volunteer to help out their community groups to make our event so successful.
“The Murrumbateman Field Days was started in 1979 when a group of local farmers went to the Henty Machinery Field Days and the legend goes that they stopped at the pub on the way home and had a bit of a chat and said that was really good but it was too big and we should do a smaller version at Murrumbateman.
“They started off just on the oval and by all accounts, the first year was a roaring success and it’s grown from there over the years. The Field Days have run every year apart from two years due to the Pandemic and it has run in rain and drought, one year it snowed during the weekend, which was pretty amazing for October.
“We have hit the point now where we are at the maximum space and we have a happy medium, which seems to be pretty good. The site hasn’t grown for the last ten years or so and we’ve just moved things around and worked it out as we go along.
“It’s been something that has happened every year and there are people that have been involved such as exhibitors right from the start and we are coming up to our 45th year this year.
“My partner ran into someone at the Yass Woolies and they said why should we come to the Field Days, we are not farmers. I thought that was an interesting comment because it’s not just for farmers. There are so many other things there for people to look at. We have the attractions, but over 300 different exhibitors, there are so many things out there for people to look at and have a look around for. We are really trying to make sure it is not just for farmers; it is for the local region and the people in the towns.
“Whether they are looking for a new lawn mower or looking at different brands for something or water tanks or building their house or doing renovations they can come and learn about different brands in the one spot.”
Jack Murray