Thousands support Camperdown Show

DESPITE wet and windy weather for the weekend, the 2025 Community Bank Cobden and Camperdown, Camperdown Show saw strong crowds passing through the gates last Saturday.

Smiles abound: Showbags proved a popular purchase at the 2025 Community Bank Cobden and Camperdown Camperdown Show as strong crowds turned out despite poor weather.

Around 2500 people attended the show, as well as the horse event the next day, with many packing umbrellas and raincoats for the weather.

Camperdown Pastoral and Agriculture Society (P and A Society) president Andy Riordan said attendance for this year’s show was on par with recent years.

“Considering the weather, it was really good, especially the dog jump, pet parade and the dachshund dash,” he said.

“Those took us an hour and a half to run – we started at 1.30pm and finished at 3pm, and that was those three events alone.

“I’ve heard all good comments.

“One of the things that’s hopefully going to grow is the young farmer’s challenge – even though we only had three teams, it was very exciting.

“Our top drawcard was the header simulator – every time I walked past that, there was a line of about 10-15 metres of people waiting to get into it.”

Seventy-two trade stalls were established on show day, with Webber and Chivell taking home the prize for the best trade site.

P and A Society secretary Cheryl McMahon said the show was well-supported this year, with many show favourites seeing strong engagement.

“The mystery showbags were sold out by about 10.30am – they always are very popular,” she said.

“The winner of the mega raffle was Margaret Clissold – she won first prize, and there were ten items.

“We grouped the pet parade, dachshund dash and the dog jump all together and we had really good number of entries for those.

“It was really pleasing to see so many people turn out - the support we got from the local community and local businesses around town was wonderful.

“The P and A Society are very thankful and appreciative of that support.”

Ms McMahon said while many features were still able to operate, the inflatable rides were cancelled due to the strong winds making them unsafe.

“The wind blew – it was too strong for us to use the inflatables, which was probably one disappointing aspect of the day,” she said.

“The weather is one thing that is out of our hands.

“We had a parent and family room this year, which was really appreciated by the patrons of the show.

“That was something new we did – Ian and Sue Currell took that on, and it’s really good if you can get people to put up their hand and say they’ll organise it for you.

“That’s the sort of thing we need – we need people to step up and take on jobs that can make show day happen.”

Despite volunteer numbers being low, Ms McMahon said the P and A Society volunteers did a great job of organising everything to make show day happen.

“We were down quite a bit on members, either through illness, recovering from operations or travelling away, so we were short-handed,” she said.

“You need people in the lead-up to the show because there is so much preparation that goes into the weekend – it doesn’t all just happen.”