No fridges or luxuries for past Bathurst Show entrepreneurs
Part three of The Road to the Bathurst Show: a series of excerpts from Ben Bezuidenhout’s book, Simply the Best
Each year brought improvements and additions to the showground in the way of permanent buildings and stalls. In 1921, the Society held its first baby show and what a
popular and long-standing feature that proved to be.
In 1924, the Society’s meetings were very poorly attended and there appeared to be a lack of interest creeping in.
Finally the President, C Fletcher, proposed at one meeting that the Society move its venue to Port Alfred. This notice of motion attracted a record attendance at the next meeting
consisting of objectors to the move …
In the ‘20s, and prior to that time, catering for the people attending the shows proved a
massive headache because of the basic conditions.
The catering hall was a small wood and iron shed with no equipment to speak of. There
was no electricity, only an open fire, great iron pots and kettles, no fridges and very little else.
Yet Iris Timm and her band of volunteers catered very handsomely year after year and
paid the society a percentage of their profits.
If you were in the catering section, all crockery, cutlery, glasses and cooking utensils came from your own home.
The difficulties facing those ladies were enormous.
Jellies, for example, set on blocks of ice and water, presented a perennial problem.
One year there was no water at all until Gray Tarr offered a tank of water and Mrs Prew sent her driver with a lorry to fetch the tank. And all the time there were tiny tots to feed and little ones lying in cots at the back of the stalls and [101] other things a busy mother still has to do.
A feature of these lunches was delicious plum pudding served with thick custard . . .
Twenty-one puddings were cooked well beforehand so that on the day of the show all that
remained was for the cloth-wrapped puddings to be put into boiling water in a three-legged
pot over a fire outside the hall . . .
This was a family show from the outset . . . Whole families would trek in their ox wagons
and camp among the trees around the grounds. The surroundings took on the appearance of a wagon tent village for the duration of the show . . . After the hustle and bustle of the day, the evenings would be spent visiting from camp to camp. This was the social event of the year for Bathurst and District.
Picture: BATHURST AGRICULTURAL SHOW ARCHIVES
War, wool, pineapples and the press – The Road to the Bathurst Show – Part 2
