FOR the past 135 years, barring the occasional break during wartime, Goulburnians have flocked to the local show.
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In that time, it’s survived droughts, equine influenza outbreaks and myriad other obstacles. But an afternoon clash with the local harness racing club’s meeting has caused the show’s cancellation.
“Heightened risks” stemming from the additional harness racing activity on the same day meant the Show Society could not get public liability indemnity insurance.
The Show Society, Harness Racing Club and Goulburn Mulwaree Council were left in a mexican standoff.
The crux of this issue is that it took seven weeks for the double booking to come to light. By this stage, it was too late to rearrange the show date, and frantic negotiations between the Show Society, Harness Racing Club and the council proved fruitless.
Monday’s media release from the council's general manager, Warwick Bennett, was extraordinary in its vitriol. Rarely, if ever, have we seen a council general manager take the long handle to a community organisation in such a manner.
Issued within an hour of the sixth such meeting between the council and the Show Society finishing, the release said it was “absolutely vital that the community understand that this was a Goulburn AP&H Society decision”.
Actually, what is absolutely vital is that the council's venue booking system be immediately reviewed and overhauled to eliminate any future such double booking.
Just as importantly, the Show's cancellation wasn’t the council's news to break, especially in such a public and brutal fashion. Regardless of the council’s feelings of frustration towards the Show Society, it should have allowed Mrs Waugh and her committee the courtesy to tell the community the Show had been called off for a year.
The Show Society hasn’t shied away from making this call. They believe they’ve made the right decision.
The Show Society are now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Any future Goulburn Show will always be held on the first weekend in March, providing the council and showgoers with some certainty over dates.
In the meantime, with only a matter of months before the show was due to go ahead, the council has vowed to hold their own show.
The Show Society, with 135 years of experience in such things, invests a year into proper preparations, as their thorough investigation of insurance arrangement demonstrates.
Anything less from the council or any privately contracted show provider would be genuinely disappointing.