Bass Coast Show postponed until 2028

The Bass Coast Agricultural Show will take a year off in 2027 as long-serving office bearers step back, and organisers recruit the volunteers needed to help carry the event into the future.

The full event had initially been scheduled for January 9 at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve, but it’s now been postponed until January 2028.

Show Secretary Rosemary Loughnan said the break would give the society time to undertake succession planning, train new people and strengthen its volunteer base.

Ms Loughnan will step down as secretary after almost 50 years with the show society, however, she plans to stay involved, remaining on the committee and supporting those who are learning their new roles.

“It’s been quite traumatic for me, I have to say. It’s been a big part of my life,” she said.

“I’ll still be there to help though. I’m going to stay on the committee and just be a backup for those who are learning.

“I wouldn’t ever just walk away.”

The Wonthaggi and District AP&H Society has about 20 committee members and relies on more than 100 people across the event, including stewards, gate attendants, volunteers, and many others who support its attractions.

Ms Loughnan said the committee would call for volunteers around its annual meeting at the end of April, and that people don’t need agricultural or equestrian experience to become involved.

Some existing stewards were getting older, she said, making it more important to build a larger pool of people who could help in areas like arts and crafts.

The major reconstructions of Oval 1 at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve also made 2027 a good year for the pause.

Bass Coast Shire Council has allocated $720,000 to strip the deteriorated surface, install new drainage and resurface the oval using grass seed.

Ms Loughnan said organisers also would not have staged the show’s very popular poultry section because of the concerns surrounding H5 bird flu, following similar decisions by both the Melbourne and Adelaide Royal Shows.

The show previously missed two events during the COVID-19 pandemic, while an outbreak of equine influenza once forced it to proceed without horses, but even then, the show went on.

Aside from that, Ms Loughnan said you’d probably have to go back to the “world wars” to find another year where the show wasn’t held.

Ms Loughnan acknowledged that while it’s still early, she was optimistic the full event would return in 2028.

“It’s not all gloom and doom,” she said.

“Some things just have to change for the good of the show.”