Trundle Central School Agriculture teacher Heather Earney is no stranger to the show, entering items since she was a little girl at her local show and attending the Sydney Royal Easter Show since she was 15 years old.
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Heather was awarded the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Youth Medal for her ongoing contribution to shows at this year's Sydney Royal in front of her students which were a part of the All Roads to the Sydney Show program. Heather is a very deserving recipient of this medal being involved in multiple areas of local shows and the Sydney Royal since she could remember.
"I started with the young judges competitions when I was 15," Heather said.
"I did that until I was almost 25 and in that time I also entered the showgirl competition and since 2013 I have been stewarding the fleece at the Sydney Show."
Growing up in Bedgerabong her parents were heavily involved with the Bedgerabong show, her father president and mother secretary for multiple years. Heather was also the Bedgerabong showgirl in 2019 and 2017 and was the President of Group 10 before her teaching career and is now the Trundle Show President.
"This year the two agriculture captains, since I have been teaching at Trundle, have been asking me 'can we go to the sydney show?' The All Roads to the Sydney Show program has been running for 4 years, this year I decided we could put in for it."
Trundle was guaranteed a spot in the program and students travelled to Sydney on Monday, March 25 and met with John Bennett OAM (RAS President) and Brock Gilmour (RAS CEO).
Each day students were treated to different activities at the show including, a guided behind the scenes tour of different livestock sections as well as different parts of the show and emergency HQ, a private session in the farmyard nursery before it opened to the public, demonstrations in the working dairy and watched the night show and indulged in showbag shopping in the afternoons.
Student Max Longhurst also competed in state finals for the Merino sheep young judges competition and students also supplied the Western District exhibit with the award winning heaviest melon out of the district exhibit competition!
"People from the Sydney Show were saying to me, 'they're the best group of kids we've ever had come through this program, they're so polite and they engage so well," Heather said.
Heather said her highlight of local agriculture shows and the Sydney Royal is "seeing that lightbulb moment when younger and older people find their happy place, it's amazing how diverse shows are and how many happy places there can be in them."
With the local show season fast approaching, Heather strongly encourages everyone to enter one item into their local show. "Everyone put one entry in, go find it in the pavilion and have a good day at the show."
