QueenslandThe state’s largest event is experiencing a ‘renaissance’ amid record crowds, but not that much has changed since it began
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The Brisbane Ekka has long been billed as a meeting of the bush and the big smoke – but few met the brief as literally as Kathleen and Cameron Kedwell.
She was a country girl from a cattle and cane property near Prosepine, about 20 hours’ drive north of the capital. He was a city boy from Brisbane.
They met at the Stockman’s bar 12 years ago.
“I don’t know, it’s sort of a little bit opposites attract, I guess,” she laughed.
This year they celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary – and they have four kids. They go back to the show every year to celebrate the occasion – and to check out the cattle.
Kathleen says it’s still a key moment on the social calendar for many in the bush. “It’s the one big trip that they make a year to the city. And I think what it then does is it allows everyone to catch up in a place that they all love and know, and have probably been doing for decades.
“There’s still a beautiful humbleness to it, which I think these days people crave.”
Formally called the Royal Queensland Show, for 147 years the Ekka has been the state’s largest event. The entire city grinds to a halt on Wednesday for “People’s Cay” – though the unique Queensland public holiday is staggered in surrounding regions to prevent overcrowding at the 22-hectare site. It has been cancelled four times: during two separate pandemics and the second world war.
Veteran stall holder David Blacket has travelled about six hours to the Ekka every year for 20 years. The owner of the Riversands winery in Saint George says it’s an important marketing opportunity, but also hard work.
“It’s not an easy show compared to the bush shows we do. So you’ve got to work hard at your marketing here – which we do – to make it economically viable,” he said. “So I’ve lots of staff … and we work our butts off for 10 hours a day for the whole nine days.”
Organisers forecast 55,000 people will go through the gates on Wednesday, after record crowds in previous days. Like many, John Matthews forecast that 2023 will be the biggest show yet.
For six years, Matthews has volunteered his time to show off ancient farming equipment with the Queensland Steam and Vintage Machinery Society.
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“Each year we try to do something different,” he says.
This year they drove up a restored century-old multi-tonne tractor and an original Furphy water cart, the whole elaborate set-up pumping water to send a rubber ducky down a pipe for the kids.
Matthews puts the 2023 “renaissance” down to a desire to escape the screen after Covid. “You know, probably 30% of the people walking in last year were still wearing masks. I don’t think I’ve seen a mask today, which is great.”
Not too much has changed since the original Intercolonial Exhibition of 1876, which is still where the event gets its moniker.
But as an increasingly metropolitan city grows around the event – now literally shadowed by tall apartments and neighbour to a new rail line – the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland has made a few tweaks. Kimmy Balmer organises a range of events, everything from traditional competitions such as a country music singoff to the offbeat goat yoga.
This year she helped plan one of the newest and most popular events: the drag queen bingo.
“We always we try and cater for as many as possible. And it’s still always packed,” she says with a laugh.
This year the organisers formalised an old tradition, holding a singles mingle event at the same Stockman’s bar where Kathleen and Cameron met 12 years ago.
“Yes, you can meet your future husband, but I think more than that it just fills up your cup,” Kathleen says. “Be open to love at the Ekka!”
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