Horseman Guy McLean to wow crowds at Rockhampton Agricultural Show

The Rockhampton Show starts on Wednesday and here’s a look at some of the most exciting entertainment that’s set to thrill the crowds. Read all about it here.

Whether its horses, cattle, showbags, rides or dagwood dogs – this year’s Rockhampton Agricultural Show is set to have something for everyone.

Thousands of people are expected to walk through the gates of this year’s Show when it kicks off on Wednesday morning.

Last year’s Show saw about 10,000 people a day across the three days, but this year organisers are hoping to see even more people attend.

Chairman of the Rockhampton Show Society and executive manager of Advance Rockhampton, Greg Bowden, said the variety of events on offer would be a drawcard for crowds.

“This is one of those events where, whether you’re two years old or 82 years old, there’s something to do,” he said.

“That’s the beauty of an Agricultural Show, whether you like the traditional side of the stud cattle, horses or horticulture, for the family and kids there’s sideshow alley and showbags, but there’s so many other things whether it’s Guy McLean or the nightly fireworks, people make it a full-day activity.”

Mr Bowden said in the past year Rockhampton had held three of the largest events in the state, despite Covid threatening regional events.

“We were able to successfully deliver Beef with more than 100,000 people, we delivered Rockynats with 45,000 people and we delivered an Agricultural Show so we were very fortunate on that front,” he said.

“We feel like we’ve been a bit immune to that Covid effect on our events.

“Of course we’ve had issues but to deliver three major events in the region, what a great thing for our region for that kind of thing to happen and just profile what we have to offer here, and we are seeing more people visit the region because of that.”

Since the Show was held last year, many Covid restrictions, including checking in, have been scrapped which will mean a quicker entry for showgoers this year.

Rockhampton Show Society member and Rockhampton Regional councillor Ellen Smith said preparations for the Show were going well and the centre ring was looking good after some rain greened up the grass and settled the dust.

“We do put a lot of emphasis on our centre ring with our horses - it is a lot of work to get horses to a Show, we have a lot of travelling horses this year,” she said.

“We’re going to have a lot of entries in the show jumping and in our other equestrian events, we will also have our little miniatures going over jumps as well.

“All the regional Shows so far have been really well attended … all the Shows up the coast have had good crowds, I think with the Covid restrictions lifting people just want to have some fun.”

One of the big entries in this year’s Show program will be performances and demonstrations by Guy McLean International Horseman.

Mr McLean and his horses will perform eight times across the three-day event.

Guy McLean and his horses will be performing at this year’s Rockhampton Agricultural Show.

While he has performed in Rockhampton before at events including Beef Australia, this will his first time performing at the Rockhampton Agricultural Show.

“When I’m performing at Beef Week I’m performing in front of cattlemen and horsemen, basically preaching to the choir - here I’m going to be performing for people in the city areas and I’ll be able to tell them about our stockmen and women and the wonderful horses we ride everyday in the bush,” he said.

“I’m so proud of the Rockhampton Show keeping the agriculture in the agricultural show because we need to tell our kids where all our produce comes from.”

Mr McLean said he hoped the Show would be loved by the young and the young at heart.

“I love it when the older generation come to me and say ‘I used to ride like that when I was a boy’ or ‘my grandad was so good with a stock whip he could flick a fly off its back’ and kids come up to me and say ‘I want to be a stockman when I grow up’ and ‘I want to love Australia and love these horses as much as you’, that’s what gives me the biggest kick,” he said.

“I will read the crowd, travelling all over the world you get a good idea of what the crowd needs and I will try and be the very best performer I can be for the crowd.”