Roughly 140 people had gathered for Regional Development Australia Southern Inland's inaugural Ag Day Gala Dinner, at which Mr McGrath was the keynote speaker.

The 49-year-old addressed the crowd for more than an hour, and covered topics including his early life, career, friendships, personal life, the McGrath Foundation and his connection to agriculture.

Mr McGrath concluded his talk on a poignant note, when he discussed how he rebounded from adversity.

"[What matters is] how you pick yourself up and carry on, but it's the people in your life that allow you to do that," he said.

That line will have resonated with the farmers in the room who, as Mr McGrath alluded to earlier in the night, were all struggling with the current drought.

The gala dinner was held a week out from National Ag Day, in order to raise awareness for and celebrate the nation's farmers.

Along with Mr McGrath's address, there was a raffle, an auction, a locally-produced meal, and music to keep attendees entertained and well-fed.

The raffle offered a main prize of two tickets to the Pink Test in Sydney next January, along with a night's accommodation, while the auction featured a cricket bat from the 2018 Prime Minister's XI match which featured signatures from both the home team and the visiting South African side, which was donated by Cricket NSW.

All told, the proceeds from the night raised over $5,000, all of which was donated to the McGrath Foundation.

"[The proceeds were] probably a little bit over what we expected, the raffle prizes were really popular," RDASI project officer Camilla Staff said.

"We ran out of tickets on the night which I guess is a pretty good problem to have.

"It really just shows the generosity of everyone. It was very unexpected but I think the auction in particular created a bit of a buzz in the room."

In recent years, RDASI held informal barbecues to celebrate Ag Day, but this year it decided to change the formula.

"The original version was the informal barbecue with vendors ... it was very low-key," RDASI business attraction and development manager, Darryl Smith, said.

"As a committee, we said 'let's step it up. Let's do something different, let's look at having a dinner, getting a keynote speaker, let's see if we can make it attractive to a few more people'."

Ms Staff confirmed that the night was a success and that RDASI would most likely look to continue the gala dinners in future years.

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