Gympie character Bill Fallon has been getting the job done for the Show for four decades

The Gympie Show Society has Charlie Cotter to thank for getting Bill Fallon involved almost half a century ago, and this inimitable local character has been getting the job done ever since

Bill Fallon has been a ‘behind the scenes’ stalwart of the Gympie Show since the late 1970s, often volunteering 150 hours of his own time.

For a vast swath of Gympie’s residents the highlight of the region’s annual Show is three days of fun, festivity and catching up with everyone.

But the best moment for Bill Fallon is when he drives away four days after it’s all over, everything done and dusted for another year.

Mr Fallon, who is in charge of the Show’s set-up and is a lifetime member of the Gympie Show Society, has been working behind the scenes “since 1976 or 1977” putting about 150 hours of his own time into the set-up and pull down of the vitally important event, saying the grand sum of time he had invested in it over the years was “more than I care to remember”.

The origins of his long involvement are charmingly simple.

“A bloke (Charlie Cotter) approached me and asked me if I wanted to join the Show,” Mr Fallon said.

Bill Fallon started working with the Gympie Show when asked by Charlie Cotter “in 1976 or 1977”.

“I hadn’t even thought about it. I said ‘I suppose I can help’.”

And while 150 hours of ongoing annual commitment might strike some as a lot, it is chicken feed compared to what the job used to entail.

“When I first started here we had all these old wooden stables; we used to spend days making two stables out of one, so we had to cut 50 stables in half and that took us days.

“We used to do nearly two weeks (work) before the Show started just getting everything ready.

“Now we start tomorrow and we’ll be ready in a week.

“It’s the same after Show.

“If we work Sunday and Monday, we’ll be finished Tuesday. Before that we used to be at least a minimum of a week.”

So what has been the biggest challenge to rear its head throughout the years?

Bill Fallon is a driving force behind getting the Show up and running every year. Photo Tanya Easterby / The Gympie Times

“Getting people to help you,” Mr Fallon said.

“We’ve done well this yea.; I’ve managed to con five volunteers but they can’t come every day.

“That’s a big help, five extra people.

“I think we’re getting five school kids. We used to have the kids but Workplace Health and Safety stopped all that.”

This change was something he considered to be a big loss.

“We used to have 10 school kids and they were brilliant,” Mr Fallon said.

“You know they knock the younger generation, but half the time it’s the older generation’s fault.

Bill Fallon says getting this year’s Gympie Show back up after COVID was “daunting … but it’ll happen”.

“When I went and interviewed the kids to see what was coming and work out in my mind what they’d be able to do, I used to pick out three kids of that group I could employ for the weekends or school holidays and every one of those kids that worked with me on the weekends all have good jobs now.

“One of them is my mechanic, he’s got his own business.”

This year had the added challenge of bringing the Show back following last year’s COVID enforced cancellation, a task made tougher by the raft of health guidelines in place.

Mr Fallon admitted this year’s event was “daunting” but there was no sign of anyone backing down from the challenge.

“It’ll happen. We’ll get it done.”

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Originally published as Gympie character Bill Fallon has been getting the job done for the Show for four decades