Bids to preserve history

John Follett and Jack Rae at the preserved saleyards on 14 September. 197282_01

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The clock wound back at a live auction at the former Dandenong Saleyards at Dandenong Showgrounds.

Families filled the saleyards’ grandstands, reliving what was a weekly farming tradition for decades in Dandenong on 14 September.

The yards, formerly at Cheltenham Road, were a regional drawcard when Dandenong was known as the Gateway to Gippsland.

When they closed in 1998, Dandenong Show committee members saved this important strand of the region’s pastoral history.

The sales ring, stock pens and grandstands, signs and other memorabilia are now housed at Jack Rae OAM Pavilion at Dandenong Showgrounds.