Qld ag shows struggle under major federal funding loss

Country shows are feeling the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding which was taken away in 2022, and showgrounds across the state are “deteriorating” as a result.

Nicole StrathdeeJournalist

2 min read

June 29, 2023 - 5:00AM

Flynn LNP MP Colin Boyce expressed his own disappointment in the funding cut, and said every show in his electorate was suffering from it.

Bundaberg

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It has been eight months since the federal government announced it would scrap a multimillion-dollar funding program for agricultural shows, and regional communities were already feeling the effects, Qld Ag Shows general manager Trevor Beckingham said this week.

In a Senate Estimates hearing in November 2022, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the previously allocated $14 million dollars in grant funding for the Agriculture Shows Development Grants Program would be “repriotistied”.

Mr Beckingham said the funding loss had had a major impact on regional shows and had indeed been “devastating”.

He said while Queensland Shows had the benefit of state government funding, the grant opportunities were a “drop in the bucket” compared to the federal program.

“The infrastructure funding the federal government previously supplied allowed a lot of our shows to be able to maintain and develop infrastructure that they just haven’t had the capacity to do so,” he said.

The infrastructure funding allowed regional show societies to invest in improving and updating any and all brick and mortar elements of showgrounds, from stables to canteens to pavilions.

“The biggest problem you’ve got is a lot of our shows are in excess of 100 years old,” Mr Beckingham said.

He said despite showgrounds often being centres of several community events throughout the year, ongoing maintenance often fell to the show societies themselves.

Without major funding opportunities, regional show infrastructure was falling into disrepair, with grandstands, toilets and other facilities simply no longer safe for use.

“The shows just don’t make enough money out of their annual shows or other activities to be able to invest in their grounds in that way,” he said.

“Unfortunately, facilities are just deteriorating over time, pipes are rusting out, roofs are falling in.”

Flynn LNP MP Colin Boyce expressed his own disappointment in the funding cut, and said every show in his electorate was suffering from it.

“Everybody is at a complete loss,” he said.

He said regional shows had already suffered under past and ongoing council amalgamations, which limited funding opportunities as councils were forced to reconsider just how many regional events they could support.

He has called on the federal government to reinstate the grant funding, or at least explain where the funding has been “prioritised” to.

Almost every show grounds in the state has had to find major funds in recent years as decades old facilities such as the pictured Gympie Show Grandstand age out of safe use.

In 2020, show societies across the Flynn electorate shared in $340,000 of funding under the Supporting Agricultural Shows and Field Days program.

This included:

• AG-Grow Pty Ltd (Ag Grow Emerald) – $70,000

• Bundaberg A P & I Society Inc. (Bundaberg Show) – $18,003.79

• Callide Valley Agricultural Pastoral Society Inc. (Callide Show) – $68,945.51

• Comet Sporting and Agricultural Show Society Inc (Comet Show) – $10,000

• Emerald Show Society Inc (Emerald Show) – $38,153.88

• Gayndah Show Society Inc (Gayndah Show) – $10,000

• Gin Gin Agricultural Pastoral & Industrial Society Inc. (Gin Gin Show) – $15,000

• Mt. Perry Show Society Inc. (Mt Perry Show) – $2684.57

• Monto & District Show Society Inc. (Monto Show) – $5380.21

• Mount Larcom & District Show Society Inc. (Mount Larcom Show) – $58,109.07