With the Brisbane Ekka coming to a close on Saturday, this brings the end of the Queensland show season and most operators are starting to head south to the southern states.

Adelaide is the next Royal Show in early September, closely followed by Melbourne and Perth.

What is amazing is that most travelling showmen do more kilometres in one year than European showmen do in 10.

This year’s EKKA was badly affected by the media attention to the flu epidemic that hit South East Queensland in recent months and while we do not know the final attendance figures, spending was down across the board and all operators are reporting a significant reduction in gross revenue, yet operating expenses certainly increased.

Several issues occurred with OH&S and the implications will be discussed with the department at a later date.

To add to everyone’s misery, rain started to fall just as pull down commenced and thus made bumping out extremely unpleasant.

The rain of course was welcomed by locals and hopefully signals a break in the drought ravaging the state.

We were certainly glad it held off until the end of the EKKA.

It is hoped that with what seems to be good rainfall across South Eastern Queensland, some easing of the drought will occur.

As we leave the EKKA behind for another year and most show folk head onto Adelaide and Melbourne, we will be praying for some big crowds in the months ahead.

Phil Durkin

Chair, Transportables