With both Melbourne and Perth Royal Shows finishing, it is time for the rural and agricultural shows to get underway.

Melbourne looks to have been quite a success with its new showground and significant increase in attendance, this is great work and we hope it is the start of the revival of Royal Melbourne show.

The show was held at the new showgrounds for the first time this year, following their AUS$108m redevelopment by the RAS and the State Government.

Early figures suggest that final attendance was around 600,000, making it the best attended show in years and a huge increase on the 2005 figure of 440,000.

Carnival operators in the A area reported a good result and were pleased with the layout and spending of the crowd, although operators in the B area felt that they have suffered a loss and very disappointed with the traffic flow.

Meanwhile Royal Perth Show was good as always with most operators pleased with the result, the biggest issue this year was finding and keeping staff with the mining boom appearing to empty the pool of people looking for casual or permanent work.

The saga in South Australia is continuing with a seizure order on the Twin Flip still in place, Safe Work SA has been to court to apply for an adjournment.

As we go to publication, the Twin Flip ride is still located in Adelaide Showground under guard 24hrs a day. There seems to be no expediency in bringing this incident to a conclusion, and as long as this ride is on display in Adelaide showground it is a constant reminder to the public and more fodder for the media.

The ensuing damage to the amusement industry has started already with a significant decrease in major amusement equipment attending Mount Gambier Show in SA.

This also means not only that the public miss out on the larger amusement rides but the Show Society has less to help attract the customers and the town will miss out on a significant sum spent by the ride operators and their staff.

We all hope that a satisfactory result can be achieved with both Safework SA and the ministers to encourage this industry to keep coming to South Australia.

But life goes on with the Victorian shows in full steam and ironically rain at Geelong show. In Tasmania there has been strong to gale force winds for several weeks, all this while the drought is biting hard in the rural areas and shows no sign of abating. It is interesting and challenging times ahead but the show must go on.

Phil Durkin

Chair, Transportable Rides