Page 6 - The Outdoor Showman January-March 2024

Hawkesbury Show
19-21 April 2024
Notching up 137 shows is a great milestone and staging the largest regional agricultural show in NSW is an even bigger achievement, all whilst facing the challenges of the urban sprawl. Located in the peri urban belt of greater western Sydney, Hawkesbury Show really is the place where “the Country meets the City”!
History
Founded in 1879, the Hawkesbury District Agricultural Association (HDAA) is the
result of the third attempt
to form such an association
in the district. In 1845, the Penrith and Hawkesbury
Agricultural Association (P & HAA) was formed which held shows for two or three years in adjoining paddocks in the district, one for the ploughing match and the other for
the booths and displays.
The 1845 show was described
in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald which tells us that Windsor was empty and the road from Windsor to Clarendon filled with people on horseback, in carts or gigs or walking to
the show. “Upwards of 3000” attended and they were served by a number of booths, “seven of them publicans.” After 1848 there are no records of the
P &HAA suggesting it was a victim of the 1849 depression.
Hawkesbury Agricultural Association held several more shows between 1876-1879, however this Association was not successful as it did not have the support of the wealthiest and most influential property owners in the district. Andrew Town was elected the first president of
the newly formed Hawkesbury District Agricultural Association in 1879 with the first Hawkesbury Show staged at the Hawkesbury Racecourse in April 1880.
100 shows were held at the racecourse except for in 1919 when the flu epidemic precluded
Hawkesbury Pavillion
4 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN