By Cam Lucadou-Wells
It will take more than wet, wild weather to close the gates on Dandy Show’s 150th-year celebrations.
“I’ve been on my knees praying for good weather,” Dandenong Agricultural & Pastoral Society president John Follett jokes.
“But we’ve had wet shows before.”
After a two-year Covid hiatus postponed 150th celebrations, Mr Follett and the committee are understandably keen for the show’s long-awaited return.
The Follett family has been part of at least half of the show’s rich history.
And there is some sweet symmetry to Mr Follett being at the helm for the show’s sesquicentenary.
Amazingly, his father Alfred was at the helm of the show society for the show’s centenary in 1971.
The pair feature in a photo of the show’s committee that year, which still hangs in the showground offices.
Collectively, Alfred and John have been connected to the show for eight decades.
Two further generations of children and grandchildren have also been brought into the fold.
John Follett, who first went to the show in a pram, has been on the committee for the past 50-odd years.
His father Alfred, a market gardener in Noble Park and later cattle farmer in Nar Nar Goon, was on the committee for more than 30 years between the 1950s to 1980s.
He also had a strong affinity for horse novelty events, as a judge and organiser.
Novelty horse events used to be on the rough side, Mr Follett recalls.
One contest was akin to musical chairs, with riders and horses at speed converging on five-gallon drums.
“You had to go around in a circle and when the music stopped, you had to run at the drum on a horse and you had to get off and sit on the drum.
“At the same time, you had to keep your hands on the reins.
“There are still novelty events but not to that extent anymore.”
Mr Follett recalls the days when the show was staged on just one day, and crammed into the former cattle market, football ground and showgrounds in Clow Street Dandenong.
It switched to its larger current site at Greaves Reserve in 1967, and soon after to a two-day format to cater for record crowds.
Since that heyday, Dandenong is no longer a Gateway to Gippsland’s farming district, but a gateway for new, diverse arrivals.
Many of its market gardens have turned to middle suburbia.
Mr Follett himself joined the exodus of farmers from the Casey-Cardinia food bowl, moving from the rapidly-urbanised Clyde to a farm in Gippsland. He didn’t think he’d have to make that dramatic shift in his lifetime, he says.
But the Dandy Show continues to defy gravity.
With stalwart families sticking with it such as Follett, Marriott, Anderson, King, Ferris, Rae, Duggin, Allan and O’Hagan.
“It’s the genuine volunteers and the enjoyment they get from putting it on,” Mr Follett says.
“Keeping the spirit alive and the mateships you make over the years.
“We’ve got people involved in cooking, people involved in horses, people involved in cattle. In a lot of cases, it’s their lifestyles.”
The 150th Dandenong Show is at Greaves Reserve, Bennet Street, Dandenong on Saturday 12 November, 9am-pm and Sunday 13 November, 9am-4pm.
