AFTER almost two years, the Royal Hobart Show made a return last week.
The event marked the 200th year of agricultural showing in Tasmania, with organisers eager to mark the occasion, despite the Covid safety restrictions imposed.
It is also potentially one of the last shows to be run on the current site, with redevelopment planned for early 2022.
Scott Gadd, CEO of the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania, said he was extremely proud of how the show turned out.
“In all aspects but financial it was a raging success,” Mr Gadd said.
“The team were fantastic, the organisation, the camaraderie, in my 10 years this is the show I am most proud of.”
Mr Gadd said it was estimated around 22,000 people walked through the gates of the showground over the weekend, despite the cancellation of Wednesday’s opening day and poor weekend weather.
“We had great weather for Thursday, but the rain probably kept some people away on the Saturday.”
Despite the weather and capacity limit, Mr Gadd said with the public “behaving themselves” regarding mask use, “we couldn’t have asked for better”.
“I remember coming here as a child with my dad, the show has changed so much,” Mr Foster said.
“Having been to this show virtually all my life, it’ll be a change to see with the grandstand gone, the site is going to be completely different.”
World champion woodchopper David Foster said it was great to have the show back and running, and said he was intrigued to see how the site will look after the planned redevelopments.
Livestock showing continued throughout the week, with beef and dairy cattle, sheep, alpacas, goats, and fleece, as well as equestrian, dogs, cats, rabbits, poultry, ferrets and cavies.
For beef cattle, Exeter stud Fire-Ro Park took out the Interbreed Supreme Champion Beef Exhibit award for their Murray Grey Bull “Quoiba”, which picked up first place in every category it was entered.
In sheep, Paul Day’s Sunnybanks stud, based in Penguin, picked up the Supreme Champion Exhibit for their White Suffolk Ewe “Winnie”