Redcliffe Show society ready to celebrate show’s 70th anniversary

Their grandfather co-founded the show, their mother was a long time committee member and 70 years on these two sisters are still volunteering their time to keep this community show alive.

Barbara Mapp and Carmel McGowan, pictured at the Redcliffe showgrounds, have been attending the show since they were children. Picture Chris Higgins

Sisters Barbara Mapp and Carmel McGowan have been attending the Redcliffe Show since the gates first opened 70 years ago in 1949.

Their grandfather, Charles Allen Webb, started the show with then mayor Bob Bradley so Redcliffe residents could showcase what the region had to offer.

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6 year old Skyla-Maree Hardstaff from Rothwell at last year’s Redcliffe Show. Picture: AAP /Renae Droop

“Thinking back to 1949 as a young seven-year-old girl I can remember walking through the large gates of the Redcliffe Show, holding my grandfather’s hand and being so excited. Seeing the fairy floss spinning and ­eating a Pluto dog, seeing the crowds of people everywhere,” Ms Mapp said.

“There was a merry-go-round, cake and sweet stalls, a place where people showed their prize-winning plants, vegetables and flowers and horses and cattle being ­paraded around.”

Mrs McGowan was three when she first attended the show.

“They called me the mascot of the show,” she said.

“They used to put me on the back of a clydesdale in the grand parade and parade me around while I was sitting on this horse.”

Fast-forward 70 years and the show now offers an action packed entertainment program, rides, agriculture competitions and displays of woodwork, craft, photographer, schoolwork, art and baking.

A photo of Redcliffe Show in the early days.

Both women are still heavily involved in the show, following in the footsteps of their mother Lorrie Fisher BEM, with Ms Mapp the secretary and Mrs McGowan the vice president.

Ms McGowan said she had seen “so many changes”, including the construction of new buildings and embracing new technologies.

“We are all volunteers who want to put on a good show for the local people of Redcliffe,” she said.

The Redcliffe Show is on June 28-30.