Come and celebrate the 165th Longford Show on Saturday the 15th of October. We are a very family friendly show, there is lots of free entertainment to see throughout the day.
This year’s main attractions feature:
- Trial Riding Motorbikes
- Australian Sheaf Tossing Championships
- Just Imagine Youth Drama School
- Jeff Hayes Balloon Artist
- Reptile Rescue Snake Display
- Fishcare
- Animal Nursery
- Monaro Club Display
- Northern Tasmanian Light Horse Troop
- Sheep Dog Trials
- Sheep Shearing Demonstration
- Show jumping, fleece, sheep, chopping, poultry, kennel and home industries competitions!
- Plus plenty more free entertainment as well as all of your favourite rides in sideshow alley!
Adults – $12 Children – $6 (under 5 free) Family – $30
We encourage everyone to come along for a fun filled day and support local businesses and the community. Gate opens at 9am at both the Marlborough Street and Bulwer Street gates.
Trial riding motorbikes
Watch all of the action of motorbike trial riding! Unlike most other forms of motorcycle sport, Trial is not racing. It is simply you and your bike pitted against the terrain. Trial is a sport of balance, skill and concentration. One at a time, competitors will ride over an obstacle course of boulders, streams, hill climbs, logs, drop offs, and nearly anything else they can find.
Australian sheaf tossing championships
Sheaf tossing has its origins from European farming districts before mechanisation. The farmers would cut their wheat, tie them into sheaves and leave them in the fields to dry, before picking them up in wagons to store over winter in haystacks. As the sheafs stacked higher on the carts the field hands would have to increase their tossing of the sheaves to make the top of the cart. This became a competition for the workers and developed into a sport as it is today. Haystacks would also be made with thatched roofs, as high as 15 metres, these haystacks would last for many seasons and are no longer seen today.
Modern day sheaf tossing competitions emulates this action by having two poles and a bar set up similar to a pole vault set up. The sheaf is hand made to specific standards and weighed at the start and end of an event, it weighs 3.65 kilos and can be no longer than 500mm.The sheaf is compressed and bound in a hessian sack. The forks have 4 tines and these tines are up to 300 mm long. The competitor pierces the sheaf with the fork and using a swinging pendular action tosses the sheaf over the bar. Competitors have 3 attempts to clear the bar and if successful move up in height until eliminated. The heights can go up to 14 plus metres, with the current world record being 18.25 metres.
Events are held at country and city shows with most states holding their own Championship as well as regional competitions. The events are very spectacular to watch and capture a wide audience. The last time Tasmania hosted an Australian Championship would have been back in the 80s when Tasmanian competitor Bruce Mountney (dec) won the title and threw a world record (17.25m), which was held for 25 years.
Generally, the Australian Championship is held in Victoria or South Australia due to the size of the event and following there. After winning the event in 2018, I was asked by the Australian Sheaf tossing association if the Longford show would be interested to host the event in 2020 which I was very excited for, due to Covid the event was cancelled. We are now able to hold the event in 2022 and are very excited to have this event in Tasmania.
Just Imagine Youth Drama School
Will be preforming a variety of current works from our students throughout the day.
Just Imagine Youth Drama School is a Launceston-based drama school specialising in teaching drama in an inclusive manner.
The Youth program teaches the skills of performance to students aged 4 – 16. Students have the options of learning across a number of disciplines
- Drama
- Musical Theatre
- Scriptwriting
- Monologues
- Singing
Students are encouraged to develop their skills in an environment where they feel safe to be themselves. There have performance opportunities for all our students in our annual show.
The skills learnt bring out our student’s unique personalities and increase their confidence to accept themselves. This is the best gift we can provide our young people.
Reminders
- To social distance where possible
- Stay home if unwell
- Hand sanitise
- We ask that patrons please be patient and courteous to our volunteers who are putting on this event for the community
